The Silver Discovery
by Backstabber789
Summary: Ever wonder why there were three scanners instead of two? After all it was just Aelita and Franz. In this new world Aelita, Franz Hopper, and Michael were transferred to Lyoko! Join Michael Chang, an adopted brother at a young age. Featuring some originally XANA attacks in the future!
1. Prologue:The silver brother

Author's Note: So after getting some advice from a fellow creator, I decided to redo this Chapter. This actually as chapter 2 tied into it as well so I think it worked out as the Prologue. Shoutout to AJleefan for the advice to rewrite. Anyways to story!

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Prologue: A time before Lyoko.

An Unknown amount of time ago...

As the sun began to rise, a little cottage not too far from the woods was spotted. The house had bright colors and from this house a certain tone was played. It was this tone that attracted a certain boy to the house, as it reminded him of his mother.

The boy had silver hair to contrast with the white snow. He looked no older than around 7 years old and had brown eyes. His clothes were ragged and he looked to have not eaten in days.

When he went to the house and looked through the window he saw a man on the piano with a little girl sitting on his stool. Well that is until they spotted the boy.

"Daddy? Who's that boy over there?" The girl asked.

The boy not wanting to be caught immediately began to run away from the house, not wanting to be caught. Unfortunately for the boy his escape was dashed when he fell off the side of the house and heard a crack in the bones.

"AH!" The boy cried out in pain as he had felt his leg not responding to him anymore. He heard the door open and he saw that the man was coming to punish him.

"No please! Stay away!" The man approached the boy and realized that he boy had broken his leg. He didn't expect that the boy would the look of being absolutely frightened of him.

 _'This boy is truly terrified of me. I am guessing something must have traumatized this boy.'_

"It's okay son, I am not here to hurt you." The man began to lean over to treat the boy's leg,but he saw that there was still doubt in the boy's eyes. "Please let me at least treat the wound, then you are free to do whatever you wish."

While the boy did want to run away… He really couldn't with the leg. So he complied and sat as the man began to treat his leg. They sat in silence for a while until he whispered something inaudible to the man.

"Thank you…"

The man pretended to not hear it but was at least thankfully that the boy spoke. He also saw his little angel come out of the cottage in her pink coat down to him and the boy.

"Okay. All done." He stood up and grabbed his little angel by the shoulder and pulled her in tight. The little girl was grabbing the man's coat.

"Now then, why were you spying on us?" The man wasn't trying to scare the boy off so he used a light yet curious tone.

The boy twiddled his thumbs before answering the question. He wasn't sure that he should answer. But then again, the man did help him after all. Plus he had a little girl with him.

"Because the music reminded me of my mother." He answered with a tone of sadness. This wasn't missed by the man as he wondered where this boy's parents were.

"Where are your parents?" The man asked.

"... They are gone. They died when I was young from a trip for Korea to France. I have been living in an orphanage ever since. Eventually I ran away because all the kids called me a freak for having silver hair." The boy was barely able to speak as the memories of the orphanage came back to him. If not for the small girl now holding his hand then he would have started to cry.

"I am sorry for what happened to you. It must have been an awful experience to lose your parents." The man was proud of his little angel to try and cheer the boy up. He went over to him and held a hand out.

"I am Franz Hopper. Now could you tell me your name?" The man asked.

"Michael… Michael Chang." The hesitated before he grab Hopper's hand.

"I am Aelita. Aelita Schaeffer. Nice to meet you." The little girl had a bright smile on her safe that lifted Michael's mood.

"Franz Hopper, Aelita. Thank you so much."

 **Years later...**

"Hey Dad! Aelita! Dinner is done!" Michael said as he wiped the sweat from his hair. He set the table and set his stir fry along with it.

After that day, Michael ended up staying with Franz hopper's family considering he really had nowhere else to go. In exchange Michael offered to do all the house chores. Such as cooking, laundry, and even mowing the lawn. Although Franz Hopper argued every time that he would do it, Michael would always be early to his tasks and made sure that he would finish before there was any say. Franz eventually gave up.

A new change also happened. His father decided to move and so they were stationed at their new home, The Hermitage. It wasn't the cottage on the mountain, but it was home.

"Thanks Michael. Be right down. I need to check the program." Franz replied to the call. Michael was always curious on what his father was exactly talking about, but he never really asked. Although on occasion he would show him how to work with computers. The two really did bond over computers and coding. Michael even became somewhat of an expert at it.

"Aelita!... Aelita?" Michael was slightly confused at the fact that Aelita hadn't replied to him yet.

 _'Odd… I wonder what's keeping her.'_ Michael threw off his cooking apron and went upstairs. He walked towards Aelita's bedroom and looked in.

"Hey Aelita…" Unfortunately he wasn't able to finish his statement as Aelita was fast asleep on her bed with her Mister Puck deeply tucked with her.

'Well I can't exactly wake up something that precious now can I?' Michael carefully tip toed across the floorboard and approached the little pink haired figure. He carefully grabbed her covers and put them over her.

' _It's odd to think that she is almost 12 years old. And it's almost hard to believe I have been here for five years.'_ Michael thought as he finished putting the covers over her. He saw Aelita squirm a little, but now with a big smile on her face as she felt the warmth of the covers.

Michael exited the room satisfied with the work he had done. He went back downstairs to where his dad was already eating.

"Is she asleep?" His father asked.

"Yeah. How did you guess?" Michael taking Aelita's plate and covering it before placing it in fridge.

"Because ever since you started cooking, she had never missed a meal." His father said semi seriously and jokingly. Truth be told Franz Hopper wasn't the greatest of chefs. So when Michael took over cooking he was grateful.

"Haha. Please, I just do what I can. After all you two saved me. It's the least I can do." Michael also now sat at the table eating his food across from his father.

The two sat talking about various things. Such as school, how their days went, and what future plans were. But then, unexpectedly Michael apparently dropped a hammer down on the conversation.

"How is that virtual world coming along?" Michael asked while his father dropped the spoon.

"Michael? How do you know about that?" His father now on somewhat serious but also curious.

"Oh… I am sorry… Was I not suppose to know?" Michael was genuinely shocked that his father didn't know he knew. "When you were showing me the program the other day, the file next to it said Lyoko. And based on the coding it looked almost like a video game. I am sorry that you didn't know…"

His father on the other hand was impressed that despite Lyoko being revealed to a 12 year old, he was able to decipher it that quickly. After all that was seriously intensive code that was running down the screen.

' _I guess five years of coding with me has taught him well.'_ Franz thought to himself.

Eventually a point of silence was made and Michael began to clean the table.

"Michael." His father now with a somewhat serious voice.

"Yeah dad? What's up?" Michael unaware of the seriousness behind his father's voice as he began doing the dishes.

"Would you protect Aelita no matter what the cost?" Michael was shocked to hear his father say that but he continued washing the plates under the hot water.

"Honestly after these five years, yeah. She is so precious and innocent that I can't help but feel happy around her. I would protect her even if it meant giving my own life. She is that special." Michael wasn't sure why his father asked that question but after his father saved him, he wasn't going to poke his nose around.

"That's all I wanted to know." His father having a smile on his face retired to his office.

The next day...

Michael had just finished his training with his mentor Ippo. Ippo was a stickler for early practice so Michael had to wake up around 6am every morning and trained for two hours almost everyday. He was aiming to be a great boxer and his mentor happened to be one of the best. The training was harsh but he had gained a lot of muscle ever since he started training at the age of 10.

He arrived home to no one being around. At first he had wondered if his father and Aelita had went into town, but he hadn't heard anything from them. He began to worry but, first went ahead and showered. After getting out of the shower he discovered that a note had been left in his bedroom.

Aelita and I needed to pick up a few things. Be back in half an hour-Franz.

Michael was relieved to see that nothing bad had happened. Especially after that one time with the men in black. He was about to go outside when he saw another note.

Thank for you for yesterday. You better make that stir fry again for my birthday!- Aelita.

Michael chuckled at the note before heading out to practice his boxing form. He was currently working on his jabs and straights. He unfortunately like most days, had suffered the wrath of his teacher's killer move: The Dempsey roll. And he needed to improve on being able to counter it. After a while he finished up and began to meditate. While he took up boxing as a main sport, he did a little side kung fu. As his father taught him before the trip to France. And meditating was something that he always did.

Unfortunately for Michael, he didn't realize how much time had passed and as a result got a giant snowball thrown at him.

"Hey! What happened to welcome back huh?" Michael shouted as he saw his attacker.

"Well, let's just say that this time the wolf has become the prey." Aelita shouted as Franz simply smiled at the two's antics. That was something new as well. Michael's new boxer name had been wolf. Mainly because of his silver hair and his ability to always find the right time to strike.

"Why you! Come here Princess!" Michael began chasing Aelita across the entire lot snowball in hand.

Over the past years Franz noticed that Michael made Aelita very happy. Not to say that he didn't do his best, but it was always reassuring to have Michael there for her. Even through the dark times. While Franz would love to stay and watch he went inside to the grand piano.

Eventually all the fun and games had ended and Aelita went into the house running. She heard her father playing twinkle twinkle little star.

"Daddy, I am going up to my room." Aelita told her father who simply nodded.

Michael walked in after all the antics had finished and saw his father for once not on the computer.

"I am going to shower up and finish some stuff up." Again his father simply nodded.

Later in the day and dinner had come. And Michael was already hard at work preparing some France steak and fries for the family. His father was still playing his favorite song and it worried Michael to a degree.

 _'He only plays this song when he is worried or stuck on a problem. He can't be stuck, after all he told me that the program was finished. So what could it be?'_ Michael then set the table.

"Dinner is ready!" Michael to the house. Immediately you can hear Aelita running down the stairs and almost crashing into the table.

"I didn't want to miss this!" Aelita exclaimed as she began to eat her food. Michael smiled at Aelita's excitement for food. It was one of the various reasons he loved cooking.

Michael waited for a few minutes and went to see what his dad was doing. He saw that he was still at the grand piano still playing the same song.

"Dad? Dinner is all set." While his father looked up Michael saw something that he hadn't seen since the first run in with the men in black.

"Of course. Can you bring it to me? I would be better here." Franz then returned to his piano.

"Sure thing dad." Michael went ahead and went back to the kitchen. Aelita was already digging into her food as Michael went to bring out his dad's dinner.

"What's wrong with dad?" Aelita asked curious while Michael sat down to eat his food.

"Don't worry about it Aelita. It's just work. The job and everything is stressing him out." While Michael knew it was something else he knew it was best for Aelita not to know right now.

"How is school going Aelita?" Michael trying to divert the subject.

"It's going well! I am really enjoying classes there. The people are really interesting." Aelita said way too quickly.

"Hmm… Now I wonder. Does my little strawberry head have a crush?" Michael smirked a little as he saw Aelita blush.

"No way! What makes me your little strawberry head anyways? We are the same age!" Aelita now pouting and raising her fork to Michael's head.

"Okay okay. Let's leave it at that huh? I got morning practice so I am going to go ahead and turn it in." Michael picked up his tray and threw it in the sink.

"Good night Wolf!"

"Night Strawberry head."

 **In Michael's dream space…**

"Michael, did you have fun today?" A female figure asked.

"Yeah! It was a lot of fun! I want to come back soon! Right dad?" A smaller Michael asked the other figure next to the female.

"Yeah maybe next time son. Let's go we are going to be late."

"Alright!"

The family walked down the streets of Paris passing several shops along the way. They even stopped and took a picture near the Eiffel Tower on the way to their destination. As they finished their photography and continued they reached a crosswalk.

"Mommy! Can't we go? I want to hurry and see one more stop!" Michael cried out.

"Sorry Michael." The mother kneeled down and flick him on the forehead. "Maybe next time."

HONK! HONK!

"WATCH OUT!" A man screamed at the top of his lungs as a truck came into view of the family.

 **Back outside the dream**

"NO! Ah! Ha… Ha…." Michael screamed and panted as he looked around and saw that he was in bed. Realizing it was a nightmare, he slowed his breathing down. He was going to stand up when he felt something wet on the bed. He looked and saw that his own figure was outlined on the sheets.

 _'Whoa. That's a lot of sweat… I guess I need to throw that in laundry later.'_ Michael thought to himself. He looked over at the clock to see that it was 3am. He gathered his sheets and changed out his clothes as they were soaked as well. He went to the laundry room and threw everything in.

 _'I should run that before I leave later today.'_ He left the sheets, grabbing a towel, and went to the kitchen. He grabbed a glass of water and sat on the couch.

'These memories… I will never get forgot them. Even after five years, they still feel like yesterday. I hope that they are at least resting peacefully.'

"CREEK! EP!"

"I know you are there Aelita." Michael called without looking away from his spot. Aelita sighed and quickly relieved herself to the silver haired boy.

"It was that bad huh? I am so pathetic. Michael wasn't particularly happy that he woke Aelita up again due to these nightmares. Michael's routine with nightmares was pretty regular. Wake up in a cold sweat, throw on some new clothes, and get a glass of water. And every time he had them a certain pink haired figure would always know.

"You were screaming pretty loudly. Was it that bad?" Aelita now sitting on the couch concerned for him.

"Yeah. This was one was about the time I lost my parents. Probably one of the worst ones that I could ever have." Although Michael wasn't open with most, Aelita was one of the people he trusted the most.

"You know it's not your fault right? There was nothing you could-"

"I know!" Michael screamed out in a strained voice. "I know I couldn't have done anything. But, it still hurts to know that I couldn't have done anything." He paused before taking a deep breath. "Sorry. I have been just stressed out lately."

"I know you didn't mean it. I am just worried is all." Aelita knowing how Michael gets about his parents.

"Thanks Aelita. Go get some sleep. I will be here if you don't mind." While Michael relaxed and began to try and drift again he didn't feel the weight of the couch change. "Aelita-"

"I just don't want to be awaken again to you screaming again. I will stay here." Aelita wasn't budging and if there is one thing Michael couldn't beat her in, it's stubbornness

"Alright then. Good night then."

 **Later that morning…**

Michael had woken up at the time he would need to go out running and got up from the couch. Aelita was still fast asleep and drooling a little from her mouth.

 _'If anyone ever found out she did that… Man they would pay to see that.'_

"Aelita. Time for school." Michael whispered to her. Aelita rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock that read 6:30.

"Okay…" Aelita began to get up when she noticed the drool around her mouth and her face went as red as a tomato. "Did you…"

"Bye Drool Face!" Michael shut the door and swear he could hear Aelita yelling at him in the background.

In the afternoon Michael sat around practicing his swordsmanship. About a year ago, he was given an opportunity to participate in a boxing competition and Ippo told him that he should go for it. After winning the whole thing instead of being awarded points to the rankings he was given a Katana as a prize. So since he had nothing to do, he decided to learn how to use it. And he had gotten very good at it. He was in the backyard and heard the sound of someone's bike heading to the front of the house.

Michael set the sword aside and came into the house. He saw that Aelita came running in and could only smile on how happy she was. What didn't make him happy though was that his father again had been playing twinkle twinkle star on the piano.

"Daddy, I am going up to my room." His father acknowledged her and she left to go up to the room.

"Hey, I will make snacks later." Aelita nodded as she ran upstairs and Michael returned to his sword.

An hour later Michael just finished practice and went inside to prep some sandwiches. He was about to call to his family when he heard a car on the driveway screech.

 _'No! It couldn't be…'_

"Alright come out of there!" A man shouted. Michael dropped his plate and immediately went to his father who simply acknowledged what was happening. The men in black had arrived.

"Daddy! Michael!" Aelita cried out. They both went up to Aelita's room to where she had already seen them.

"The men in black are here." Aelita said in a worried tone.

"We know." Was all Michael could really say.

"Do you remember where Mister Puck is?" Their father asked.

"Yes." Aelita went and grabbed him as their father lead them both downstairs.

The men in black however were already through the front door and stared at Franz Hopper as Michael and Aelita followed their father.

 _'Shoot!'_ Michael thought.

"Ah!" Aelita shouted.

"This way!" Franz grabbed both Aelita and Michael's hands and lead them down to the basement. They were running like the wind as they heard the men in black closing in behind them. They opened the door to the backyard and shut the door behind them.

Michael saw a piece of wood and shoved it against the door as the three went through the secret underground tunnel. He heard the door break open but not the secret tunnel door. That meant they were safe, for now.

The family had reached a strange lab room. Aelita and Michael began to look around lab as their father began to type something on the computer.

"But where are we?" Aelita asked with curiosity.

"My laboratory." Franz answered not looking away from his computer.

"You mean…" But Michael wasn't able to finish his statement as his father grabbed both of their hands.

"Come on." Franz pulled them both to the elevator.

"Where?" Aelita asked. Michael seemed to start to piece things together as their father answered the question.

"To a world where we will all be safe, forever." Franz simply answered.

 _'He can't mean...'_ Michael looked at his father who only shook his head to confirm his suspicions.

They went down to the scanner room and the family went into the scanners.

"See you two in a minute." Franz said to both.

"See you in a minute daddy. Michael."Aelita said to both of her family members.

"Yeah see you guys in a minute." Michael looked towards his father who only seemed to mouth one thing.

"Protect her no matter what." The scanners closed and began the virtualization process.

A new beginning. That's what Michael thought when he was first on the virtual plane in Lyoko. But as things came to be he discovered that it really was a new beginning. He along with Aelita had been transferred onto the virtual world known as Lyoko.

While Aelita had a pink outfit along with her hair Michael was a little different. He had a symbol crest for a wolf on his chest and a single Katana blade for combat. He kept his silver hair and had a sliver outfit to match. He also noticed that as he was getting used to this new world his fists would occasionally glow.

' _So this is the world that you were developing all these years dad?'_ Michael thought as he wondered where his dad was.

"Daddy? Where are you?" Aelita asked outloud.

"I am right here you two." Franz answering his daughter's call. Franz came down in several spheres and descended for the two to see.

"I can't be in physical form like you two just yet. I still have much work to do on world needs to develop more." Franz explained to his children.

"Hold on a second." Michael now looking towards the spheres that was his father. "This world… Lyoko… How can it develop more than it already has? According the program-" Michael was interrupted as he heard a strange noise approaching them.

"Daddy there are some strange creatures over there." Aelita said as they began to charge their lasers.

"Run Aelita! Michael! Run!" Franz exclaimed to his children.

Michael and Aelita began to run away from the creatures as their lasers began flying towards them. Michael had a brief memory pop up as he saw Aelita get hit with one of the lasers.

 _ **'Protect her no matter what.'**_

"Aelita! Get to that tower over there! I will try and stall for you!" Michael quickly unsheathed his Katana and looked towards the creatures that were approaching.

"But what about you?!" Aelita asked very worried.

"Don't worry go!" Aelita while very doubtful left Michael and continued on route to the tower.

"I will not allow you to pass!"

As the creatures began firing Michael did the best he could to deflect the oncoming shots that might hit Aelita. Eventually they stopped trying to hit Aelita and focused on hitting Michael.

"Dang! That's a lot of lasers!" Michael cried out as Franz Hopper could only watch as his daughter was now waiting outside the tower for her brother.

"Michael! Deflect the lasers towards them!" Franz said to his son.

"What do you think I am trying to do?" Michael eventually deflect a laser to one of the creatures causing it to explode. As Michael continued to try and deflect lasers one managed to knock him back a few feet. He landed flat on the ground and cried out in pain.

"AH!" Franz although you couldn't see was worried while there was an audible cry from Aelita. "DANG IT!" Michael pounded the ground as hard as he could and he saw that the ground shook a little as he noticed his fists were glowing.

"Wait a minute… Could it be?" Michael spoke out loud as he realized what had just happened. He unsheathed his Katana and quickly got in his boxing stance. He took a swing at the air and saw that the punch cut through the air and punched the creature straight on the weird symbol on it's face. The other creatures were knocked off the edge and a big flash of light came from below.

"I knew it! That program was designed to take our own memories and preferences into account! AGH!" Michael took a knee as he noticed that it took a lot out of him.

' _It looks like for those kind of punches it takes some of my life force with it.'_ Michael saved the thought for later as walked over to the tower and tripped up before Aelita caught him.

"Are you alright?" Aelita asked concerned for Michael's safety.

"Yeah. Let's just get into the tower." The two entered the tower as Franz himself was entering the tower.

The two made their way to the center of the XANA symbol, and Michael rested on the ground while Aelita was sitting in the center of the circle.

"Aelita, Michael." Franz called to his children. Both looked around for their father before the spheres came from above below to them.

"Daddy. Is Michael going to be okay?" They both looked towards Michael who was extremely tired from their last encounter.

"Yes I believe so. Aelita I need to make contact with XANA. I need to persuade him that we can live peacefully here." Franz explained as Michael began to worry.

"Who is XANA?" Aelita wondered.

"He is a multi agent computer program I created. He achieved self awareness and autonomy and is trying to eliminate us from this world."

"What?!" Michael now sitting up from this most recent development. "Dad! How could a program gain the ability of self awareness? Not to mention… Reasoning with a program like that is impossible!"

'Michael knew about this?' Aelita thought as Franz was beginning to fade away. Michael sighed as he knew that his father had already left to go reason with the program. All he could do was wait. Well at least that's what he thought until a certain strawberry top came over to him.

"Michael. What was Daddy talking about?" Aelita came over to Michael and was right in his face.

'Crap… Thanks Dad for leaving me for the explanation.' At first Michael was silent and then eventually gave in. "Dad… Was working on this program. And while I didn't see too much of it I saw this world. It's called Lyoko and for now it's where we are most safe."

Aelita worryingly sat back down and saw that her brother then tried to stand up and walk over. He struggled but made it and embraced Aelita in a hug.

"Don't worry. No matter what I will always protect you." The silver haired figure spoke as Aelita felt more at ease and the two embraced each other for a few moments.

As time passed Michael and Aelita began to worry about their father. Michael however heard a faint noise outside the tower but quickly ignored it to not draw Aelita's attention.

'Dad wouldn't want us to risk ourselves right now.' Unfortunately Aelita heard and began to run out of the tower.

"Daddy! I am coming Daddy!" Aelita was close to exiting the tower but Michael grabbed her hand.

"Aelita wait!" But his pleas weren't answered as Aelita forcefully made her way out the tower and Michael followed her suit.

A new set of monsters that had wings were now flying and began attacking the sphere that was their father.

"Daddy!"

"Franz!"

"No you two! It's not safe out here! Get back in the tower!" Franz shocked to see his children out the tower.

"Stop screwing with me! Hold on Old man!" Michael quickly drawn power to his fist and punched the air destroying two of the seven creatures. But that resulted in the creatures firing three direct lasers into his chest and knocking onto the ground.

"Michael!" Both Aelita and Franz cried out. Michael was feeling pretty week and barely had the energy to stand up. The creatures then refocused on their father.

"You both possess the keys to Lyoko! XANA must never get his hands on them. Do you understand?" Both Aelita and Michael slightly nodded in acknowledgement. "It's over. XANA is too powerful. He has become a threat to all of mankind. I have to shut down the supercomputer."

Aelita carried Michael supporting him into the tower and again both were at the center.

"But… Does that mean we will die?" Aelita asking her father.

"No. But you two must never forget me! EVER!" Their father being very expressive on that part.

And that was the last they ever heard of their father's voice.

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Author's Note: Alright first chapter officially finished! And I think i am going to keep it like that... Hopefully haha. Hope you guys enjoyed. A review is greatly appreciated and till next time!


	2. Chapter 1:The meeting

Author's Note: So this chapter is kinda short but I have another one almost already done to make up for it. Hopefully this idea is unique enough for you guys to allow me to keep this going! Enjoy.

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 **Chapter 2: The meeting**

 **Transitions**

 _'Thoughts'_

 **'Memories'**

 **In the deep arcs of Lyoko 10 years after the supercomputer was shut down...**

"What is going on…? Where the heck am I?"

"You are safe for now."

"Who… No… What are you?"

"It's normal to have that reaction. After all, it's been ten years."

"Okay..."

"This will be quite tough to explain… How can I say this? I am giving you something back to you that you have lost."

"Something… That I have lost?"

"Correct. But it will take some time to regain the things you have lost. You need time. And unfortunately, I don't have enough to give you everything you have lost."

"What are you-"

"We are out of time! Go! XANA may grow stronger because of you but I am out of options!"

"Wait! What about what I have lost? What did I lose?"

"You will find out soon… Forgive me, Michael..."

 **Lyoko sometime later...  
**  
As the forest sector was fairly quiet Michael was lying flat on his face. As he came to he only noticed a little void coming out of the ground below him and quickly disappearing. He began to stand up and wonder somethings.

"Okay… What the heck just happened? A light! A light began to talk. And then told me that I had lost something. But what exactly have I lost? And what is this XANA?" Michael speaking to no one in particular.

' **He is a multi-agent computer program I created.'**

 _'Agh! What was that?'_ Michael felt a little tick in his head. _'Probably nothing. Just a headache.'_

"Okay next. Where am I? Okay, it looks like a forest. Lots of trees. And over there is… Wait what is that?" Michael looked to his left to see a glowing blue tower in the distance.

"And that's a huge tower. Okay. Now am I armed?" Michael looked at himself to see a single Katana blade. There were silver accents around them with two dragons flying towards the tip. He quickly unsheathed it and began taking a few swings with it. It almost seemed natural to him.

 _'That's strange… I don't remember when a sword was so natural to me.'_ Michael thought to himself. _'Okay let's go to the tower then.'_

As Michael began to make his way to the tower he started to hear something and paused. Unsheathing the blade and quickly taking a stance. _'What was that? I just feel uneasy all of a sudden. It's as if my instincts are screaming that there is something dangerous!'_

All of a sudden two lasers come towards Michael and he deflected them both away from him.

"What are those things?" Michael quickly noticed that there were three strange creatures that were very tiny and had a weird symbol on their faces.

 **'Daddy there are some very strange creatures over there.'**

 _'AGh!' Michael quickly dropped to one knee. What was that? A memory? I have seen these things before?'_ Michael thought as he began to run away from the creatures. The creatures, however, continued their pursuit and continued firing at Michael. _'Dang! There is no end to these lasers!'_

' **Michael! Deflect the lasers towards them!'**

 _'AGH! Again! Alright here goes nothing!'_ Michael saw two lasers coming towards him and slashed his katana towards the laser reflecting it back. The little creatures were blown to smithereens.

"Okay!" Michael now gaining some confidence began to charge at the small creatures. As they fired lasers Michael continued to dodge or deflect the lasers.

 _'I need to take them all out at once! But... I don't know anything that could do that! I am just going to have to gamble!'_

He closed the distance and brought his Katana across the three creatures and sheathing his blade. There was a brief moment of silence before you officially heard the sword back in sheathed. CLICK! And with that, the three creatures exploded.

"That's really weird. It was all natural… Well, that takes care of that. Now…" Michael looked back towards the blue tower. "Let's take a look shall we?"

Michael ran towards the blue tower he noticed a few things. One the speed he ran out was incredible! The tower that seemed a few kilometers away was reached within a few minutes. Another thing that he noticed was that everything around him seemed natural and his body would react in certain ways that his brain couldn't.

 _'It was like that one time. I was running and then all of a sudden my instincts screamed at me that danger was coming. I need to figure_ some things _out.'_

When Michael was at the front entrance of the tower, he wasn't really sure what to do. He tried putting his hand through it and it slipped easily through. So he walked straight in. Once inside the tower, Michael felt his energy recovering a little.

 _'So these towers act as a way to recover energy. Then for these next few days, I am going to have to train a little. I was barely able to do anything last time against those creatures.'_

A few days had passed and Michael had spent a lot of time swinging his Katana and also meditating. He found that meditating would keep him calm in certain situations and also allow him to sense anything that had come his way. He also saw that it sharpened his instincts allowing him to sense danger much better. He was currently running back towards the tower when the ground shook beneath him. ' _What was that just now?'_ He stopped and began to look around him for any clues. _'It's coming from this way!'_ Michael began to run in the general direction of the pluses.

 **Over with Aelita and the gang**

"This way," Aelita said as she saw the pulsations growing stronger. Odd and Aelita began their run but not before getting cut off by Kankrelats (Okay I know it's Roachsters but I am just going to use this name. Because nobody liked the name Roachsters, not even the Roachsters.) "Kankrelats usually travel by groups of five." Aelita looked around as she saw their path being quickly cut off.

"Wow, the committee looks like it's at full strength." Odd began to take aim with his arrows waiting for the Kankrelats to fire.

As the Kankrelats began to fire Odd began to dodge and flip out of the way of the lasers. Unfortunately the same couldn't be said for Aelita as she could only just watch and get hit by a few lasers as some of the Kankrelats were taken out of commission. But that soon ended when Odd took a laser straight to the chest.

"Hey Odd, your mission is to protect Aelita remember?" Jeremie worrying for both of them.

"Well do YOU want to switch places, Jeremie?" Odd sounding slightly annoyed.

BEEP! BEEP!

"What's going on now?" Jeremie wondered as the supercomputer rarely beeped unless there was an activated tower. He was seriously typing away on the computer to trying to figure out the problem. He thought perhaps a bug in the supercomputer. That wasn't the case as he saw that a silver dot was moving on his screen. _'What exactly is that?'_ Jeremie thought.

 **Back to Michael's viewpoint same time**

"What's going on now?" A distant voice said.

"Huh?" Michael stopped in his tracks and looked around. _'There is nobody there. Must be my imagination.'_ Michael continued with the pluses until he was again treated to a much louder voice.

"ODD! Bad news! We got another squad of Kankrelats and what's worse is that there is this weird silver dot on the screen! I don't what it is but it's heading right for you! Yumi is on her way to help!" The voice now much closer than before.

"Okay, now I know for a fact that isn't my imagination just now. And that's what they are called? Seriously?" Michael very curious but didn't worry for now. He continued down the road to where he saw a purple figure and a pink-haired figure fighting against three Kankrelats. The pink figure was taking cover as the purple haired figure was firing some kind of projectile at the Kankrelats. Unfortunately, they didn't see the three Kankrelats to the right and the two Kankrelats to their left. They were surrounded and Michael knew it. They only had one escape route. One that would lead them to their doom.

' _Okay. I can assume for right now those aren't hostiles. I know for a fact these "Kankrelats" are the enemy. It's strategy time.'_ A visual of the battlefield came into his head. The forest and the Kankrelats came into his vision in his head. _'It's two on eight. From what I just saw purple can take care of at least two. Pink doesn't seem like she can do anything. That leaves me with six. I am not sure how I could handle it. But if I eliminate the three from the right that would leave three. Giving Pink and Purple two options. And hopefully, those "Kankrelats" can focus on me.'  
_

Michael now with his plan quickly moved behind the three creatures on Aelita's and Odd's right side and made a battle cry of his own.

"Take this!" Michael hammered his sword across the three Kankrelats destroying them instantly. But then he realized that three Kankrelats were destroyed by the purple figure and the pink figure was no longer there.

"Hey, you? That's right you." The purple figure said to Michael now closer than before. The purple figure now pointing his projectile device at Michael. He didn't notice that another two Kankrelats were behind him so Michael decided to do what was best. He threw his sword like a javelin missing the purple figure destroying one of the Kankrelats in the back.

"Okay, then you aren't XANA's creations then." The purple figure stated as he blasted the remaining creature.

"XANA huh? The program?" Michael wondered out loud.

"I am Odd. What's your name?" Odd threw Michael's sword back to him.

"Michael. I can assume that you aren't a bad guy." Michael held his sword out.

"I would have shot you by now."

"True that." Michael sheathed his sword.

"Jeremie? You got all of that?"

"..." Jeremie wasn't quite sure what to make of it. The silver dot he originally thought was a trick or a new creature by XANA. While he would love to tell Odd to destroy Michael, he couldn't. Odd would be irrational and argue and Aelita was all alone. So he decided to let XANA play him for now.

"As much as I would like to argue the situation at the factory is getting much worse! Yumi is on her way and Aelita is all alone!" Jeremie urged the two of them.

"Okay, no time for games. Michael, we need to guide that pink girl you saw earlier to a tower. You think you can do that?" Odd asked.

"Sure I think I can do that." As the two were about to run off they heard a charge of a Kankrelat right behind them.

 _'Shoot! I miscounted! Odd only destroyed two! But I got nothing but my fists! Make it!'_ Michael said with an extended fist. All of a sudden his fist had changed color to green and the wind caused both Odd and Michael to be pushed back. The Kankrelat was pushed back and rammed into a tree.

"Whoa! What was that?" Odd slowly staggering as he began to stand back up.

"I am not exactly sure… But I think my fists have some kind of power flowing through them." Michael standing back up as well.

Jeremie, however, was surprised that XANA let his own creation get killed like that. But he quickly recovered as XANA was a smart AI. He couldn't be wrapped around his finger like that."Well, you can get on about it later! Right now Aelita needs you! Yumi is close to you and will need all the support you can get!"

"Hey, Odd!" Yumi cried out as she ran towards him. "Who is the new guy?"

"No time for that right now! You need to get to Aelita fast! It looks like she could use the help! And I don't want to stress you out but things are getting pretty heavy here!" Jeremy exclaimed. He didn't want Yumi to start arguing with him as well.

As the three were running Michael gave the brief explanation and Yumi while not convinced seemed to accept the circumstances.

With the tower in sight, Aelita took a few stops before stopping in her tracks.

"Jeremie…"

"I know. Help is on the way. Give me a quick visual." As the screen appeared there was one mega tank guarding the entrance to the tower.

The three warriors were closing in on Aelita's position as four hornets were stopping them in their path.

"You two go on ahead. I have the least amount of life points and almost no ammo left." Odd said. The other two not disagreeing went ahead without him. They closed their position and saw Aelita and the Megatank. As Aelita began to make a run for the tower a blast fired directly towards her and Yumi body tackled the Mega tank over the cliff to divert the blast.

"Yumi!" Jeremie cried out as she was beginning to fall into the digital void. As Yumi began to fall Michael caught her hand before she fell over.

"That was a close one!" Michael pulled Yumi up before seeing Aelita heading towards the tower. As she made her way in Yumi regained her bearings.

"Thank you really saved me. I am-" Yumi wasn't able to finish her statement as the four hornets from before shot Michael all in the back. Michael froze up and mouth was slightly agape. He looked shocked as he dematerialized away.

"No!" Yumi cried out. "Yah!" Yumi threw her fans and destroyed the four hornets.

Jeremie looked at his screen in shock that the silver dot had disappeared. He could have sworn that Michael had just been de-virtualized.

 _'Why would XANA take himself out?'_

He was quickly taken out of his thoughts has Aelita entered Code Lyoko and return to the past had taken effect.


	3. Chapter 2: A new ally

Author's Note: See I told you I had a chapter to follow up. Orgianlly I wanted this to be all one chapter but I found it fitting to do it this way. Hope you enjoy!

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Chapter 2: A new ally

After the return to the past, the Lyoko gang were gathered in the factory's computer lab. They were having a rather heated discussion.

"But we can save Aelita!"

"But you know for a fact that I wouldn't be here without him!"

The debate that came amongst the Lyoko group was one over Michael, a silver-haired figure that they had only just meet and quickly said goodbye to. However, they didn't have to say goodbye to him quite yet. The materialization program that was suppose to be used for Aelita still hasn't been used. So Michael could be saved, but it would mean Aelita would continue to stay on Lyoko with Michael. Everyone seemed to be in agreement except for one person.

"Jeremie. You have to understand that Michael saved Yumi's life and in a way Aelita's." Ulrich said. After the return to the past, Odd and Yumi both informed Ulrich on what had happened. Ironically enough Ulrich was getting ready himself to go to Lyoko as well. But it seems he didn't need to.

"But… I don't trust it! This is for all we know some sort of trick by XANA! What if made a program to take on this "Michael" and then trick us all? What if we restore him and it ends up being a huge mistake? We can save Aelita and shut down the supercomputer once and for all!" Jeremie exclaimed. In all truth he didn't trust it. Even now after seeing XANA destroy himself! For all they knew they were playing right into XANA's hands.

"Jeremie. If this was all some big trick by XANA, then why go through the trouble of saving me? After all, he already had gained some of Odd's trust after he destroyed two Kankrelats. If anything, it would make more sense to have me fall into the digital void." Yumi countered. The group was silent for a few moments before a familiar face popped up on screen.

"Jeremie. I am not sure what exactly what he was doing on Lyoko, but he is almost like me in a way wouldn't you agree? He too might be a program like me, and then he was able to save Yumi's life." Aelita said from her screen on the computer. "I know that it might be tough to give the program up to someone we don't truly know, but are you saying then you are willing to abandon someone that is so similar to me?" And with that bombshell everyone was silent. Especially Jeremie. Everyone realized the slight hurt in Aelita's voice. Jeremie was almost agreeing that Michael was just a program and he could be abandoned for Aelita. Meaning that Aelita was just as disposable.

"Aelita. You know that's not what I meant…" Jeremie now trying to make it right. "Alright. I guess saving you can wait for a while." The others in the room slightly fist pumped. "But I still don't trust this Michael."

"How about this?" Aelita proposed. "How about when you do re-materialize him, everyone is on Lyoko with me? That way if he ends up being this hostile of XANA then we can deal with it?" The gang quickly thought about it and agreed to it pretty fast. And with that, the gang went to the forest sector once more while Jeremie began to run the re-materialization program.

On Lyoko

"Michael… It looks like that you are very slow to remember… But the memories will come to you soon my son…"

 _'Memories?'_

Michael awoke to himself again face down on the ground of the familiar forest sector. After quickly remembering that he got shot four times in the back, he was slow to get up. He couldn't quite see very well but he saw four figures in front of him. He then heard some voices around him that were slightly muffled.

"So that's Michael?"

"Yeah, that's him. He saved me from when I hit that Mega tank."

"It's not fair! Everyone gets to look cool on Lyoko while I get to be a stupid purple cat!"

"If anything he almost looks like a wolf. But he has the dragons on his sword…"

Michael began to have his vision and his hearing came back. When he got up completely the four figures stopped chatting didn't really know what to say. After all, he didn't exactly know what was going on.

"How are you feeling Michael?" Yumi came up to him with her hand on her fans. They would be cautious. After all, none of them really knew who this Michael was.

"I am honestly not quite sure. I mean, one minute I got shot by some lasers, the next minute I am here and now in front of 4 strangers. Well, I say strangers but I know Odd and Yumi. Who are you two?" Michael asked the pink and yellow figure.

"I am Ulrich," Ulrich replied still holding his sword in place.

"And I am Aelita." Aelita was standing the furthest away just to make sure she wouldn't get attacked if it was XANA.

"Oh! You were the one heading towards the tower. Man, I still don't understand the whole "Tower" thing. I get the life energy but man… I haven't been long here to understand that." That last statement piqued everyone's interest.

"What do you mean by that?" Odd asked.

"Hmm… Well it's like this." Michael began to explain how he had come here a few days ago, his weird instincts, and how he somewhat sensed some of the pluses. He decided for now he would leave out the few times he had memories and the strange voice. But he did tell that he forgot something and so his memories were foggy. The Lyoko gang was taking in the fact that Michael had only come a few days ago, and the fact he was able to sense pluses like Aelita.

"How were able to sense the pulsations?" Aelita had come closer to Michael and everyone tensed a little. If it was truly XANA they would have to fight it out right now.

"Hmm… Well, I mediated for a few days which sharpened my instincts, and then once while I was away from the tower I sort of sensed it in the ground." Michael now with hands over his head and closing his eyes truly thinking about how else he could have sensed it. After seeing Michael's head beginning to have some stream from the overloading the other four began to relax and laugh. "Huh? What's so funny? I am seriously trying to think here!"

"No, it's funny because it's like Odd trying to solve a question in math! You just have that same look!" Ulrich and the others laughed as Odd related to the comment.

"Well excuse me! How was I supposed to know that you had to use the Pythagorean theorem on your triangles?" And with that everyone began to laugh. Even Jeremie laughed a little at Odds comeback.

While the entire gang was laughing two people had thoughts on their minds. The first was Michael, wondering what exactly his purpose was. The second was Jeremie now starting to rethink his previous thought.

 _'XANA should have at least made a move by now. And normally XANA's creatures wouldn't laugh with them. Was I wrong? Or is there something else?'_

"Wait a minute." Michael bringing the entire group to a halt. "How exactly then was I brought back here then? I mean… As far as I remember I disappeared from this world right?"

"Well, that's also a long story…" Aelita began to look a little sad and Michael looked at her questionably. Aelita began to explain that they had been working on a materialization program. She left out the part though on how it was meant for her freedom and explained instead what Loyko was and what exactly XANA is.

"So in short, XANA is a super crazy AI that is trying to destroy the world and you guys are the only ones who could stop him?" Michael asked. The gang nodded and Michael began to laugh. "Geez… If I had any memories I would have called you crazy. But… I am here now. I might as well lend you a hand until I can figure myself out right?"

Everyone on Lyoko looked at each other for a few moments before truly agreeing that Michael would be a new member of the Lyoko crew.

"Well, Einstein?" You could almost hear Yumi's self-confidence level. Almost.

"Oh what the heck? I have out numbered anyway." Jeremie giving up for now at least that this was a XANA creation.

"Yeah! Welcome to the group!" Everyone shouted.

A few days later.

While not much time had passed for him, Michael was honestly bored out of his mind. Aelita showed him the various material they were able to access the tower's archives and needlessly to say he read all of it super quickly. It was like he had previous knowledge of the stuff.

Michael also learned something about his fists. When he focused his energy into his fist and released it all at once he could create a wind blast. So over the few days, he also worked to perfect it.

And so Michael was right now meditating outside the tower in the desert sector while Aelita was inside. He was currently on a pointed rock that barely held him up and he required perfect balance for. He hoped it would raise his senses and learn to focus all of his energy into one place.

TAP TAP

And raised his senses it did. Although it didn't take a genius to figure out Aelita used her creativity to get up to where Michael was.

"What is it Aelita?" Michael was still in his mediation stance.

"You know I thought having a person on Lyoko would be fun. But you have been awfully quiet lately. Are you okay?" Aelita asked in a soft voice acting like she had done something wrong.

"I am okay right now. I thought that some time away from you would be necessary." Michael said without breaking his concentration. "That program… It was meant for you wasn't it?"

'How did he…' Aelita wondered.

"I saw during your explanation that you weren't telling the complete truth. Although I already figured that it was for you, I confirmed it later on accident when Jeremie was upset that the program wasn't used on you." Michael still not having a face change. "Honestly, I am not sure if I should even be here. What is the purpose? I can't seem to understand it at all. But I figured that sometime away from me would do you good. After all you belong on earth while I am just here for the ride."

SLAP! The sound echoed throughout the canyon and Michael began to fall off his rock. Before he could hit the ground Michael made a fist with some energy in it and punched at the ground. The wind blast made him descend slowly down to the ground.

"How could you say such a thing?" Aelita asked as she came down from her little staircase of creativity.

"I don't understand what you mean," Michael said as he grabbed the spot where Aelita slapped him.

"You are like me. No memories of your past, just thrown on her with no recollection of what happened, that means that I am just along for the ride?" Michael could feel the hurt in her voice and he realized what she implied. So he walked over and put his hand on her head.

"Sorry. I didn't realize that you had been thinking about this for that long. I will try to do better okay Strawberry head?" That last part somewhat confused Michael. It's not like he thought of it but he just said it.

"Hey! What makes me Strawberry head? If anything then you are a wolf!" Aelita exclaimed. Similar to Michael, Aelita didn't have that ready either. It just came off the tongue.

As the two argued about names on the way back to the tower, Michael held a hand up and pulled out his Katana.

"Something… Isn't quite right…" Michael had felt the sensation before. This meant XANA had sent something.

"Michael look!" Aelita gasped and Michael looked around to see a weird squid monster.

"What on earth is that thing!?" The Scyphozoa was approaching Michael and Aelita. "Aelita get to the tower!" Michael screamed as he tried to slash at the Scyphozoa's tentacles. Unfortunately, it was slippery and managed to grab Michael. As the Scyphozoa began to wrap its tentacles around him Michael began forming a fist of energy.

"Get… Off… Of… ME!" Michael propelled his wind blast in front of him and the Scyphozoa was blown back towards a wall before it exploded.

"Ha..ha..ha.." Michael was panting out of exhaustion. He panicked way too much and forcibly used all of his strength on that last attack.

"Michael? Are you okay?" Aelita now coming to his side.

"I think I will live. Come on. Let's get back to the tower." Aelita supported Michael as they made their way back to the neutral tower.

Once in the tower, Aelita opened up a channel feed to Jeremie and the others to explain what exactly had happened.

"Yeah. I am not sure what it wanted from us, but it tried to wrap Michael." Aelita explained.

"You are telling me that you guys have never seen this thing before I showed up?" Michael asked. Everyone was still wondering what was going on.

"A new monster?" Jeremie asked using his brain of his.

 _'This is because of me… With my own presence, I am endangering these people who took me in!'_ Michael thought to himself. Aelita didn't miss the change in Michael's face.

"Well as much we would like to talk more about it, we have a math test coming up. Let's go guys." Ulrich said over the line.

"Agreed. We will talk more about this thing later." Jeremie then cut the line.

"Okay what was that all about?" Aelita now close to Michael's face up close and personal.

"You saw that huh?" Michael didn't think anyone would notice but Aelita did. "I think it's my fault that XANA is growing stronger. After all, that thing didn't show up until I appeared. Maybe me being here is only causing more trouble for you guys."

"Michael. Look at me." Michael decided to look into Aelita's dark green eyes and he almost saw a fire. "Did you ask to be here? It's not like you had a choice to come here. You are here now and you could make a difference."

"But…"

"No buts! You are here now. It's not like we are going to throw you out." Aelita then began to look sad. "You are the only one that is here right now."

Michael didn't miss the sadness in Aelita's voice and he realized what she was going through. _'Despite how she acts sometimes, she really does feel alone. Sure according to Jeremie, they do their best to keep tabs with her. But, they have their own lives to live out too. I am sure more than anything Aelita wants that. She wants to live alongside them. So… For as long as I am here, I will do my best to make sure she isn't alone.'_

"Fine then. Since you put it like that." Michael poked Aelita's forehead. "Tag! You are it!" Michael began to run out of the tower.

"Hey, that's cheating! Come back here Wolf!" Aelita began to chase Michael around the desert sector.

"No can do Strawberry head!"

* * *

Author's Note: Okay! All done here. Hopefully that makes up for the last short chapter.


	4. Chapter 3:The false Images

**Author's Note: So it hasn't been long but hopefully this is a good place. I am planning on having the materialization happen soon, but not quite yet. Guys, please let me know if this story is good or not. Your feedback is really important and I am doing duel stories as it is. If it's not worth doing, I might drop it, but we will see. I do have plans to continue for at least a few more chapters.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: The false images.**

"I… am… bored!" Michael was rolling around in the tower where Aelita was sitting reading something on a screen in front of her.

"What are you, Michael? A kid? Don't you have things to keep you occupied?" Aelita asked with a little tease.

"Oh come on! You know that I have almost done everything I possibly could!" In truth, Michael had almost done everything. He had gone to all four sectors, went to most of the towers, mediated for as long as his brain could allow, and read almost everything in the archives of the tower. Heck, he even solved a problem that Jeremie had with an earlier problem.

 **Flashback a few hours ago…**

"Aelita I am having a little issue here in this program right here." Jeremie pulled up on his screen. "If the X quantity goes there but then we pull the virtualization program to there, then there will not be enough energy for the super calculator to process all the information."

"Hm… What if we take that X quantity and apply all other variables to this spot over here in Y?"

"But… then that would cause the frequency cause a disturbance with the result 2 right? We would have two inconsistent variables." The two paused.

"AH! Gosh, I am so sick of this program talk!" Michael's patience had run thin and was about to leave when Jeremie made a snarky remark.

"He is just mad because he can't understand it." That caused Michael to stop right in his tracks and then he began to move back towards the center of the tower. "Let me see this Aelita."

Michael began to analysis the program and then saw the issue. But it would be too easy to just give Jeremie and Aelita the answer. No, he would have fun with it. So in a ridiculous British accent, he could think of he began his speech. "Well, I do say Jeremie, my old boy! This program is a ridiculous thing I had ever seen! I mean what kind of fool would think that the X quantity goes anywhere near the materialization program! This is sure to fail! The great Einstein is not known for failure! But maybe just this once it will happen!"

Michael finished his speech off and Aelita and Jeremie both looked at him with shock. Aelita couldn't help herself from laughing while Jeremie looked about as red as a tomato.

"You watched another British documentary didn't you?" Aelita still laughing at Michael's ridiculous accent. It truly sounded like a British person.

"I can't help it! They are so interesting!" Michael retaliated.

"First of all the result 2 would equal the table width around 100% and then you would have to align the center properly. Then you would have to make sure that snapshot length is equal to the proportion of your entry. But none of this matters anyways as you guys are using the wrong language for this code next time The Great Einstein will think before he speaks and remember that it's not C# but C++ he should be using!"

"Well, perhaps you should check your math again! I happen to know that C# would work perfectly…" Jeremie paused after looking at his calculations.

"Jeremie! Look he is right!" Aelita looked again at the screen in shock and realized that the program's second phase had been completed.

"And with that, I will take my leave." Michael exited the tower with a grin he would have for ages.

 **Flashback over**

Ever since that day, Jeremie and Aelita had him always help with the program. And in truth, he couldn't quite figure out how he had done it. In truth, everything kind of just came to him. It was like he had seen it before.

"You know for a fact you guys would have been hopeless without me," Michael said lying on the ground.

"Yeah yeah… I still don't know why we didn't think of that." Aelita a little steamed that Michael was able to figure that out before them.

Michael sat bored out of his mind as he tried to entertain himself. He couldn't think of anything to do except...

"Heh heh heh…" Michael began to walk towards Aelita. He remembered a very distinct article that he read before and wanted to see if it held ground.

"Michael? What are you doing?" Aelita looking kind of scared at Michael's face.

"I just want to try something… Have you ever heard of tickling?" Michael grinned.

"No… Wait a minute no way!" Aelita began to get up but Michael quickly caught her.

"Let's see how long you can last!" Michael began ticking Aelita right under her armpits and Aelita now couldn't stop laughing.

"S-stop it, Michael!" Aelita said while laughing still. Michael now on top of her to make sure she couldn't escape.

"You have to say uncle first!" Michael grinned at her.

"Uncle! Uncle!" And with that I released her. She sighed as Michael began to get off but it turned out to be a huge mistake. Michael could almost feel Aelita's smirk.

"Gotcha!" Aelita tackled Michael now onto the ground and began tickling him. Michael while not as loud as Aelita, began to laugh as well.

"Now you have to say, uncle!" Aelita continued to move her around Michael's body.

"No way! That's not happening." Michael then began to fight back a little and started pushing Aelita off slowly while laughing. Unfortunately he used a little too much force and as a result, he sent both of them off the edge of the tower.

"Whoa!" They both screamed as the data streams began to take them to another neutral tower. When they both got onto the platform safely Aelita slugged him on the shoulder.

"Now look what you have done! We got sent to another sector!" Michael for some reason was loving to whistle and not stare Aelita straight in the eye.

As the two decided to check outside to see which sector they were in Michael had a tingly feeling down his spine. It was a feeling that he got very rarely.

"Aelita… I think XANA is on the attack." Michael said towards the entrance of the tower.

"What? How can you tell?" Aelita now looking shocked at Michael.

"It was the same as the pulsations feeling that I got. It's just a guess." Aelita looking a little defeated but Michael followed it up.

"Hey, we don't need that kind of attitude here. Unless you want to be tickled yet again, I suggest that you stop doing that." That statement cheered Aelita up and they both exited the tower.

They saw that they were in the ice sector and at first nothing seemed wrong. They began to walk little ways away just to be sure that it was indeed a XANA attack. All of a sudden the ground began to shake and the traditional pulsations showed up along with it.

"Uh-oh. XANA has really launched an attack." Aelita said while following the path of the trail.

"Well, you might as well contact Jeremie then. Let's see if we can get you there in record time huh?" Michael kneeled before Aelita signaling for her to get on his back. "Come on. It will be quicker this way."

"Are you sure? I can run perfectly-"

"Aelita?" Michael said somewhat seriously. "I will tickle you to the heaven at this point. Now come on. Besides you can't contact Jeremie while running can you?" Aelita now giving up got on Michael's back as a tiny silver aura came out of him and Michael began to run.

"Jeremie? XANA has launched an attack."

"Okay, Aelita. I will try and gather everyone up. In the meanwhile-"

"Stopped?" Michael now slowing his run down. He noticed something very strange with the pulsations. "Jeremie? It's Michael. You know I can sense pulsations but these ones decided to just stop. It's very odd."

"Stopping pulsations?" Jeremie wondered while scratching his head. He had never seen the pulsations from XANA's attacks stop.

"Yes, Jeremie I agree with Michael. Something very strange is going on here."

"Why don't I get Yumi? She doesn't have any classes and I will do anything to get out of gym class." Jeremie concurred.

"Sure thing. In the meanwhile, we will get to the tower and make sure to wait for you guys. We will need our brilliant lookout anyways." Michael said.

"Alright. Meet you guys soon." Jeremie then signed off and the line disconnected. After traveling for a while Michael decided to ask Aelita a question.

"Have you ever had this happen before? Pulsations coming in and out?"

"No, not before. It could just be XANA using a tactic. Or perhaps it is bugging out?"

"Whatever it is I don't like it one bit. I hate irregular things. This has XANA written all over it. I feel like it's a trap, but we just don't know how to counter it. Plus there is something else that is bothering me. We have been going for a good amount of time now. XANA hasn't sent one single creature and my senses haven't gone off at all. This is getting weirder and weirder."

"That's true. By now I was at least expecting some of XANA's monsters to show up." Aelita said confused.

"Aelita? Michael? You guys there?" Jeremie asked from his main computer in the factory.

"We read you loud and clear Einstein." Michael still keeping his stride to the tower.

"I will send Yumi to you guys. The tower isn't too much further. About a few more kilometers away."

"Sure thing Einstein whenever you feel like it. I will just keep running if you don't mind."

With the tower in sight, Yumi was virtualized right in front of them. Yumi had the privilege to see Michael and Aelita in their "interesting" position.

"What?" Michael asked as he saw Yumi's grin.

"Oh, nothing," Yumi whispered in his ear. "I will not tell Jeremie anything."

"But I haven't done anything." Michael honestly didn't know what Yumi was implying. But then again he had just come to the world a few days ago.

"Come on you three let's get a move on. The tower is about 30 degrees from your position. It's a straight-a-way."

"No kidding it sticks out like a sore thumb!" Yumi said as the group moved along. When they arrived at the tower Aelita went in as Michael and Yumi were the only ones left outside the tower. "What do you think happened?" She was now very doubtful that the tower was actually active. Especially after seeing a neutral color.

"Honestly? Your guess is as good as mine. I have no doubt in my mind that there were pulsations. But now… I feel like XANA laid some kind of trap."

"And you are sure that you guys felt pulsations?" Jeremie now asking Aelita in the tower.

"Hmm… Yes, we did. Well, we think we did. Michael wasn't quite sure. He thought that it might be some sort of trap…"

"He is right to be suspicious. I will see if there is anything going on recently that would have done anything."

THUMP! THUMP!

Michael's heart began racing as the feeling he had before intensified. He brought out his Katana and raised his fist with energy. Yumi while wanting to question it did the same with her fans.

"Who's there?' Michael asked nobody in particular.

All of a sudden two yellow balls engulfed the two of them.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Sounds like Yumi and Michael!" Aelita now looking towards the entrance of the tower.

"Yumi! Michael! What's going on? Answer me will you?" Jeremie now typing furiously on his keyboard.

"Jeremie! They are both gone!" Aelita shocked.

"What? Come on they couldn't have just vanished away?" Jeremie now seeing that at least Yumi was de-virtualized.

"Hold on Aelita I will be back."

Aelita was looking around for any clues as to what had happened. Unfortunately they only thing that Aelita found was Michael's Katana stuck into a wall nearby. It had looked as if it had been thrown there.

"Michael…" Aelita held the Katana close and for now was her weapon until she could return it to him. She knew he was alive. He had to be…

"Well Aelita, Yumi is back on earth but she is passed out. Any signs of Michael?" Jeremie asked.

"For now no. But, I found his Katana stuck in the wall. Maybe it's a sign that he is still around. I will look around for any signs of him."

"Okay. In the meantime, I am going to take Yumi to the infirmary. She is in pretty bad shape."

 **Elsewhere on Lyoko…  
**  
Michael was currently alongside Yumi in a guardian, a prison which the person has no sense of time. Although this had no effect on Yumi, it had a great affect on Michael has he was able to peer into his memories.

 **Flashback…**

"Why? Why does this always happen to me?" A younger version of Michael was currently in a hospital room with himself covered in bandages. "It's not fair! Why did mom and dad have to die? I am so stupid! If only I didn't want to stop at that one store! I don't even remember it anymore!" Michael began crying hysterically and the nurse that was going to enter the room decided to leave the young boy alone.

"It seems he is emotionally scarred from the events, sir." A man outside the room said.

"Yes yes, I know. It's such a shame that his parents passed away right in front of him. Especially at a young age. It's such a tragedy." Another man said.

"What is going to come of the boy?" The nurse asked the two men.

"I think, for now, we will take him to the local child doesn't have any family that we know of, so I think it's best for now." One of the men said.

"I see. Thank you for doing this for him." The nurse bowed before leaving the two men in black.

"Of course. After all, we can't have news get out that the prime minister accidentally killed two parents of a child."

"Indeed. We have to keep quiet about this event as much as possible. I will explain to the others the situation and then we will do our best to keep this off the news." The two men in black suits smiled as they knew that they were going to get away with this.

 **Flashback over…**

Aelita was searching around for Michael and saw that there were two yellow spheres that weren't there before. As well as two Kankrelats defending the area. Although Aelita was armed, she decided not to chance it she contacted Jeremie quickly.

"Jeremie? I think I found something." Aelita said as the link began to contact to Jeremie's main computer.

"I read you Aelita. Go on then." Jeremie typing away at his computer.

"I found two spheres on Lyoko that weren't there before. I am pretty confident that one of them has Michael, but the other might relate to Yumi's trauma."

"Although I would say that it was dangerous, you are at least armed with something useful."

"I am going to check it out, but I may need some backup." Aelita still playing around with Michael's katana.

"Okay. I will have Odd and Ulrich join you guys. Just be careful."

"You know me, Jeremie."

With the connection disabled, Aelita began to make her way up the stairs and saw that there were only two Kankrelats defending the two spheres. As Aelita made her way to the spheres she also snuck up behind one of the Kankrelats and stabbed it. The other seeing its friend destroyed fired a laser straight at Aelita who dodged the laser and ran and stabbed the other. After dealing with the two creatures, Aelita focused at the task on hand.

"Michael! Yumi!" Aelita saw both figures inside the yellow spheres. She saw that Yumi was fast asleep, while Michael was in pain?

 _'The Guardian's shouldn't cause pain but only act as a prison. Why does he look so pain?'_ Aelita wondered. _'Let's try this then.'_ Aelita kneeled before the two guardians and used her creativity song to make two images of Michael and Yumi. As the guardians as the image, they were shaking before shattering completely releasing its prisoners from their jails. Aelita kneeled next to the two as they began to wake up.

"Yumi, Michael, are you okay?" Aelita asked. Yumi was slow to get up while Michael seemed very depressed.

"What happened?" Yumi asked as she began to look around.

"It looks like something captured us," Michael said with no emotion in his voice. He looked at his katana held by Aelita. He grabbed it abruptly out of her hands. "And she got my hint of it seems." Michael sheathing his Katana in his back holster. "Come on. We got a tower to deactivate. Right Aelita?"

Aelita shocked by Michael's actions decided it could wait for later. "Yes. The tower isn't too far from here." Aelita pointed to the tower just below them. "XANA's attack is deceiving Jeremie and the others that Yumi is back on earth."

"Then we better hurry up and do something before XANA realizes that Yumi doesn't have to play character anymore." Michael ran off without the two and they followed behind.

"Anything happens with Michael? Like a fight?" Yumi asked curiously. She usually didn't see Michael like this although they hadn't known each other for that long.

"No. In fact, this might be the first time I have seen him this upset. When he was in the guardian, unlike you, he seemed in pain. I am not sure what was happening to him." Aelita knew that she was slightly lying. She had seen him in a familiar mood earlier about the materialization program and how he thought he stole it from her.

As the three began to approached the tower 4 Kankrelats stood in their way. While Yumi was quick to be on the defensive, Michael had simply stopped running and had a slow walk approaching them.

"Michael! What are you doing?!" Yumi cried out.

If Kankrelats could ever be confused this was a time for them. They all shot at Michael and two shots hit in the legs but he continued to walk forward. He reached for his Katana on his backside and took a stance.

" _ **Dragon Draw."**_

To the naked eye, Michael was on the other side on the four Kankrelats in an instant. Michael's Dragon Draw required extremely fast speed and power. It was what he discovered he first did with his first encounter with those Kankrelats. By channeling his energy into his sword, the two dragons glowed throughout the drawback was that it completely drains him of stamina so he could only use it a few times. Michael took his time sheathing his sword. The Kankrelats seemed frozen in time until a sound came amongst them. The clink of Michael Katana being sheathed echoed throughout the sector and the four Kankrelats exploded. Michael didn't even look back as he just entered the tower. The two ladies couldn't see his face but saw his body actions said it all.

"Aelita," Yumi said sadly.

"Yeah. I know." Aelita began to enter the tower. She saw that Michael was sitting on the edge of the Lyoko sign. She knew he needed help but deactivating the tower came as a priority. Aelita ascended up the platform and typed CODE LYOKO into the panel before a white light engulfed the space.

After the return to the past, Aelita and Michael were sitting in the tower as the gang was discussing what had happened.

"That's really fantastic. The fact that XANA materialized another Yumi proves one thing: It proves that Materialization is actually possible." Aelita had a smile on her face which was quickly gone by Michael's frown or rather noninterest in the conversation.

"XANA is actually helping with your Materialization program!" Yumi said with enthusiasm.

"Back to work then Einstein," Odd said with glee.

"No sweat! I will start the programming right now!" Jeremie said.

As the group was bantering off each other Michael simply sat uninterested in the whole conversation. ' _What were those things? Memories? Is this what that thing was talking about? Something that I have lost? But that would mean then… I existed on earth before?'_

"Yeah, but if it wasn't for Michael, I wouldn't have known if he was around." Aelita dragging Michael out of his thoughts. "He left his Katana on the wall when he and Yumi got taken by the guardian. He at least gave me a weapon."

"..."

"Michael, is that true?" Jeremie along with everyone else was curious.

"Ah." Michael sighed out. "Yes, it's true. I was able to sense the guardian beforehand and had my fist as well as my Katana out. When they approached us I was able to blast one away with my windblast. However, the second one captured Yumi and left me alone. I determined that if the windblast couldn't kill the thing, I wouldn't be able to destroy it. Even Dragon Draw wouldn't have worked so as it approached me again, I threw my Katana at the wall hoping that Aelita could see it." Michael was greeted with a long silence. "What?"

"Wow. And here I thought Jeremie was Einstein." Ulrich said.

"No kidding. Michael, you are really something you know that?" Odd agreeing with Ulrich.

"Maybe we should call you Einstein 2," Yumi said jokingly.

"He kind of is… Over the past few days, Michael has been helping us with our Materialization system. He even corrected us on the type of programming we have been using." Jeremie sheepishly admitted.

"WHAT?" The group yelled as Michael kept his impassive face.

"We can talk more about it later. Right now we got to go to class."

"I will never understand the importance of knowing why a stem cell is so important to the world," Odd asked as Jeremie gave the whole explanation on stem cells.

As the line cut, Michael began to walk out of the tower when he felt a soft hand grab his hand from behind.

"Aelita…" Michael trying to break out of her grip gently.

"I saw that you were wincing while you were in the guardian. You want to tell me what happened?" Aelita having a soft yet confrontational look on her eyes.

Although Michael didn't want to tell her, something in his mind was telling him to. _'As much as I want to keep this to myself, Aelita's stubbornness will keep getting the better of me. Besides, I can't hold this forever.'_ Michael gave up."Alright. But you have to keep this a secret okay?" Aelita nodded in response.

"I had some… Visions? Almost as if they were memories?" Aelita had wide eyes as Michael continued his explanation. "I saw someone that looked like me, crying… Because his parents had passed." Michael barely got the words out. "Sorry. I need some time alone."

Michael got out of Aelita's grasp and went ahead out of the tower. Aelita was left starstruck. She felt awful that Michael had to go through such an experience. But what she thought more on was the possibility of Michael having been on earth before. _'Could I be… Human?'_

* * *

Author's Note: Mysteries Mysteries indeed. Hope you guys enjoyed.


	5. Chapter 4: Tension, Skills, and Program

Author's Note: Yay! We finally get into the good stuff after this I added an image to this story because this is how I think Michael would look. Ironic that he is with a wolf right? But yay! Let me know what you guys think of the character now. Onto the story!

* * *

Chapter 4: Tension, Skills, and Programs.

Michael had been quite distant from Aelita over the last few days and Aelita had done the same. They would go as far as to work separately on the program with Jeremie. Although Michael spent the majority of the time on the program. They would only switch if they tagged each other out. While Jeremie did ask, Michael and Aelita told him they weren't fighting but something personal happened. Even during the XANA attacks, they would only have brief communications. And needlessly to say Michael had been getting the job quick.

During one of the missions with a XANA attack, Michael had quickly taken out two mega tanks and 4 blocks in an instant. Jeremie did warn him though he was close to being de-virtualized but he simply walked into the tower without the rest of the group. And Aelita would do the same with Michael.

It wasn't saying that they were mad at each other, rather they needed space. Although both thoughts about the possibility of being human, Michael's pain was a little worse as he was shown he no longer had a family in his new life. So when Jeremie and Michael were working on the program, things got weird.

"So how are things with Aelita?" Jeremie asked.

ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!

"Fine and dandy." Michael simply replied with no emotion in his voice.

"Did you two-" Jeremie didn't even finish his statement that time as more error messages popped up on his screen. With that note, he decided to leave it at that for a while. Although he wanted to make sure that Aelita was okay, he couldn't really do that until the program was actually finished. Thankfully his friends had already thought of ways for Michael and Aelita to attend their academy. Yumi was convincing her parents to have them stay with them, while Odd and Ulrich were getting their papers in order. Needless to say, Jeremie was doing his part by creating the program in the first place. Oh, how he wanted to touch and smell Aelita's hair. How he wanted to go on many adventures with her. How he wanted to-

"It's done," Michael said dragging Jeremie out of his thoughts.

"Huh?" Jeremie said looking at the green plus sign on his screen.

"It's done. The materialization program is completely operational. Let's see here..." While Michael still had conflicting thoughts on earth he was glad he did finish the program. It took them a while, but with three minds it went a lot quicker than he originally thought. However, he was disappointed with the result.

"Alright!" Jeremie yelled loudly as he shifted his communications link to the Yumi telling her that the program was a success. Michael got up from his spot knowing that it was getting late for Jeremie and headed out the tower.

The mountain sector. Michael's second favorite sector next to the forest sector. A lot of open running room and so many fun jumps to make. Not to mention it was great for concentration. Michael quickly concentrated hard and heightened his senses to see that Aelita was currently meditating near another rock formation. Instead of running to tell her what happened, he figured it would be better for Jeremie to tell her the program was a success. So he did the next best thing. Michael began to move rocks with his windblast.

...

Aelita was currently thinking. She seemed to be doing that a lot these days. Ever since the little incident with Michael, Aelita couldn't help but feel distant from him. As if a part of her Lyoko world got a little smaller. She rarely saw him smile anymore and she hated it. Even in the last mission, he displayed truly raw power, however, he risked his own life points to do it. When he used Dragon Draw against some blocks a mega tank was firing in the path he would reappear. Yet he did it without hesitation and took the blow leaving him only 15 life points. He used the remainder of his points and fired off two powerful wind blasts knocking both mega tanks of leaving him with only 5 life points. Had he concentrated the blasts anymore who knows what would have happened?

Michael was always having fun and being ridiculous like Odd in a way. But, he was different. He considered all possibilities and would do anything for his friends, even if it meant his own safety. He was always walking in the front. And Aelita felt so useless. The only thing she could do was make some objects and deactivate towers. She stood up and noticed that she heard some clangs in the background. She decided to investigate as she felt no pulsations.

Aelita traveled across the mountain sector to where the tower and behind the tower, she saw Michael with several boulders around him. The boulders were about 6ft tall and in the epicenter, Michael stood. Currently, he had his Katana in hand and seemed to be training. He stood for a few moments before a vicious cry came from his blade and in an instant came across the rocks. However, only two of the rocks were even had cuts in them. The rest being unharmed or having very little effect.

"Damn! Much quicker and faster! I need some more power in my blade if I want to cut these things down." Michael panting and looking very fatigued. Aelita thought about approaching him but first wanted to check in on Jeremie. So Aelita entered the tower and as the center glowed she noticed that she was getting a call.

"Hello? Jeremie?" Aelita said as she saw all the gang was present. Well except Michael…

"Aelita. Hey, I have some good news for you!"

"Okay! What's the good news then?" Aelita asking curiously.

"Aelita. I don't know how to tell you this, but we're waiting for you guys here!" Jeremie couldn't wait to say that. It was as if a giant weight was lifted.

"Really?!" Aelita couldn't believe it. She would finally be on earth!

"Really!" The entire gang announced.

"The materialization program works?" Aelita exclaimed. She thought it would be weeks and weeks before that the program was finished.

"Yeah, it's all right here!" Jeremie held the disk up. "You wouldn't believe how long it took Michael and me to finish last night! It was really complicated! Michael said that De-fragmenting the inertial matrix wasn't good enough, so he restarted all the code and data-"

"Time out Einstein," Odd said. Jeremie looked annoyed as Ulrich faked a yawn and Aelita looked a little surprised.

"Michael? He did all of that? How long did it take him?" Aelita now wondering exactly how long he had been working.

"Hm… Well, he told me a few days ago that we needed to restart the code and data. He told me he would contact me once he had the initial testing done. He contacted me just last night to check so…"

"A FEW DAYS?" Aelita and Jeremie exclaimed. That couldn't be possible, right?

"Whoa whoa whoa. Explain so we non-geeks would understand." Odd now trying to calm the two down.

"Well Odd, the materialization program is a super complex program. One wrong move and it screws up the entire thing, it could take hours, days, weeks, to solve-"

"Okay! I thought I said we nongeeks would understand!" Odd now yelling.

"Basically, Michael has been working non-stop for these last few days and finished the program all on his own." Oh, how it seemed for quiet before the screams.

"NO WAY!" The rest of the group now yelling. The whole group couldn't believe that Michael spent that long without even rest or a break doing that. They seemed in disbelief as to how he was able to work on it for that long.

"Hmph! Hmph!" Jeremie grunting to get everyone's attention. "Anyways, I first need to run the program in the supercalculateur first. Then, we need Aelita and Michael to get to a tower in the forest sector so that way they can make the jump to our world in one of the scanners."

"I will see you guys later. I am going to tell Michael about the program. See you later my friends." Aelita said with a two hand salute.

"Okay. We will be six for dinner tonight." Jeremie signed off before encountering a wild Jim in the hallway.

Michael was exhausted. He had been working non-stop on the materialization program, and he now was trying to upgrade his Dragon Draw. He had been at this technique for hours and hours it seemed. The best he got was two rocks that were all scratched and the rest barely any damage. But he continued to try… after a short break. He was currently sitting on one of the rocks mediating trying to recover his strength. However, he felt a presence near. But he chose to ignore it. Which was a mistake.

"I know you can sense me, Michael," Aelita said with her arms crossed. Michael sighed and jumped off his rock formation.

"Oh did the gang give you the good news?" Michael trying to sound surprised and happy.

"Don't lie to me!" Aelita shouted and Michael cringed a little. "I know for a fact that you have been working on this program non-stop lately!"

"It's not completely my fault you know. You were the one who decided the tag system. I didn't tag you because I wanted to finish it." Michael trying to have a reasoning voice.

"But why?" Aelita wondered. "Why go through all that effort when you could have easily asked for mine?"

"Because I need answers!" That single statement shook the entire mountain region. Aelita simply stared at Michael not knowing what to say. "That program is allowing us to travel back to earth. Which means that somewhere in that program got us here. I thought maybe by looking I could find similarities. But it was too many variables involved with the program. Nevertheless, I was able to complete the program. Before I realized it had been a few days. Honestly, I thought I was only in there for a few hours until I decided to stretch and stand up. The stiffness made it apparent." In truth, Michael was only seeing number and equations through his head when he was visiting the program. He had no memory of it, but it just seemed to work."Come on. I know we need to get to the forest sector."

While Aelita wanted to argue with him, she complied and they both made the jump from inside the tower. They both walked out of the tower into the forest sector.

"Where it all began. Ironic that we came back here." Michael said as he looked around. Aelita said nothing and they continued along the path. As they made their way to the tower an obstacle stopped them.

THUMP! "Seriously? Now of all times?" Michael groaned to himself.

"Oh no…" Aelita said at the tree formation. They quickly spotted the five blocks defending the tower that was now activated. "I am going to contact Jeremie."

"Good plan. The faster we can get them here, the less time that XANA has to plot something. IN the meantime, though, I am going to relieve some much-needed stress." Michael ran off leaving Aelita alone.

Michael sprinted up to the two blocks and pulled a successful dragon draw. He was going towards the other three however, he was stopped when the three blocks shot their ice beams at the ground.

 _'XANA's monsters are evolving? That must be the answer! Before they were helpless against this. But it doesn't mean I can't do things the old fashion way!'_ Michael quickly avoided the ice and charged his fist with energy. The blocks began to fire and Michael got hit with one of the lasers and got blown back a little. He decided that range would be better.

"Take this!" Michael charged his fist to almost max and fired a powerful wind blast. Two blocks knocked off into the digital void while the third continued firing. He deflected the lasers coming towards him and finally threw his sword into the last block before exploding.

"And that's that." Michael ran to his sword and picked it up.

"AH!" Aelita yelled and Michael looked over to see the Scyphozoa now trying to attach itself to Aelita.

"Damn!" Michael ran over to Aelita but he knew that he wouldn't be able to cut all the tentacles quick enough. The only thing that would work was the Dragon Draw but he would have to not hit Aelita… "I am going for it!" Michael hand on sword began to imagine all of the rocks when he tried cutting them last time. _'Sharp as my blade! My resolve!'_ Michael began to spin and right after carefully aiming around Aelita he began his technique.

"Dragon dance!" Michael cried as blade cried and began making cuts 360 degrees over. The rotation of Michael spinning made this technique even more lethal. The Scyphozoa tentacles were cut and began its retreat as Michael grabbed Aelita.

"Aelita! You okay?" Michael now over here carrying her bridal style to the tower. She didn't respond as she was still unconscious. When they got into the tower Michael set her down on the center circle and waited until Jeremie would contact him.

"Hey, sorry guys! We came as fast as we could! How are things on your end?"

"It's not great. I destroyed some of the blocks but Aelita was left alone. The Scyphozoa managed to grab her and I managed to defeat it quickly." Michael could practically hear how stupid he was. He shouldn't have left her at all. Jeremie was about to say something, when Yumi signaled now, wasn't the time.

"They are heading to the scanners. In the meantime try and get Aelita safe to the tower. I am going to start the program for getting you two here safely." Jeremie said as he put in the program.

 _'I am so stupid. I am supposed to be able to work out things like nobodies business. Then all of a sudden my brain just stops working. I need to pull myself together.'_ Aelita began to stagger and wake up. _'Right now the best thing I can do is protect her and the tower.'_

"What happened?" Aelita said as she began to get up.

"I was a fool and left you behind," Michael said without looking at her. "I am glad that you are okay." He said in a less cold tone. Aelita looked a little shocked before having a smile on her face.

"Bad news! I accidently switched CD drives with Odd's stupid music video! I need to go back to my room!"

"Okay, Jeremie but hurry man!" Michael replied. The two were sitting around waiting for the others and the silence was apparent. It was quiet for a while before Aelita began to say something.

"Michael… I-"

"Hey, you two!" Odd said in a dramatic fashion. Michael simply stood up and looked at Aelita with a knowing look.

"What took you guys so long? And Odd, please don't make a CD video next to the materialization program next time okay?"

"HEY! It was a good video okay! Break break breakdance…" Odd began singing to himself.

"On another note, Jeremie said you actually finished the program all on your own. How did that happen?" Yumi now ignoring Odd's singing. If that's what you call it.

"Honestly, I have no idea. The numbers just came to me and before I knew it I had finished it. I hadn't even noticed it had been three days until after I knew it worked." Michael looked at the group without flinching.

"You are insane man." Ulrich now shaking his head.

"Hey, I take offense. If I am insane then what is the definition of Odd?" That got everyone in the group laughing except for Odd.  
"But you have to admit that you have been acting a little crazy lately. Even you Aelita." Odd now having a somewhat serious voice. Michael and Aelita cringed a little, while Ulrich and Yumi agreed.

"During that last mission, Michael insisted on going alone. And Aelita didn't help by saying let him do what he wants." Yumi now recalling that mission.

"Is there something you want to tell us?" Ulrich now having his arms across his chest.

"Ha…" Michael sighed out. "I promise that we will explain everything once we are on earth. Not to change the subject, but Jeremie has been gone for almost 45 minutes now."

"Don't be such a worry wort! I am sure that Einstein is fine!"

THUMP! Michael gripped his chest. "I beg to differ. We got company." Michael now looking at the entrance of the tower. All of a sudden the tower began to shake. "Aelita stay in-"

"NO! I am coming with you guys." Aelita looked very hurt and while Michael would want to disagree, he wouldn't argue now.

"Come on then." Aelita nodded and the group saw that there were three Mega Tanks trying to attack the tower.

"Of course!" Michael hit his head. "Guys! We need to protect the tower no matter what! If the tower is destroyed, then it's goodbye for our ticket to earth!"

The group looked in shock before then looking back at the three Mega tanks. One was facing the tower straight one while the other two could hit it from its sides. The one in the middle fired straight as the group dodged and saw the tower get hit by the blast.

"Okay… So how are we supposed to protect this thing?" Ulrich now wondering what exactly they were going to do.

"I have an idea. Michael and Odd can deal with one, while Ulrich and Yumi deal with another one. Leave the last one to me." Aelita pointed out.

"Aelita! That's just too crazy! You can't-" Yumi was interrupted by Michael who held a hand up. He knew that this would come eventually. So he wanted to check how ready she was. Michael towered over her and asked in a voice that showed no sign of pity.

"How long?" Michael now looking Aelita in the eyes for the first time since their little fight. "How long can you give us?"

"Three barriers. That's the most I have been able to produce." Aelita grinned. Just like Michael had been trying to upgrade his dragon draw, Aelita spent a lot of time on her creativity. Through a lot of thinking and long sessions, she was able to find that she could now produce three tall red barriers.

"That's more than enough. I agree with Aelita. These tanks are hard to deal with and I would rather save my wind blasts." Michael looked around and they had their mouths open. Well… Almost everyone.

"Early bird catches the worm! Geronimo!" Odd now sprinting to the Mega tank down the middle. Michael followed Katana in hand and Aelita sprinted to the one on their left.

"You are all crazy… Come on Ulrich!" Yumi sprinted to the right with a smile on her face while Ulrich followed her suit.

With the battle in the middle, Odd and Michael were able to surround and immobilize the Mega tanks. Each time it would open its shell to fire, Michael would charge a windblast in his hand. Because the Mega Tank learned what it was it would revert back to its shell and Michael would dispel the energy. Although Michael would lose some points, it made up for it in terms of the time they were able to buy.

On the right-hand side, Ulrich and Yumi sort of had the same strategy. The Mega tank would try for a blast and Yumi would try to throw her fans at the tank before it hid again. Then when it tried to roll around, Ulrich used a triangulate to keep it in place for a few seconds before it blasted a clone. The remaining two tried to keep their distance.

The left-hand side wasn't differing too much from the other sides. Try as it might, the Mega tank couldn't break through the barrier that Aelita was able to produce. The tank kept firing and the wall was beginning to weaken, however, Aelita used her song yet again to make the second barrier behind the first. When the tank got through the first, the second barrier was completely fresh.

"Everyone! How is it going?" Jeremie asked on the mic.

"Well, it's about time! What happened to you?" Michael yelled as the Mega tank was charging again. "Dragon dance!" Michael began spinning and sword glowed. Before he could hit the tank went back in its shell. But it didn't fire again and that's all that mattered. The several scratches were made on the tank, but it was still kicking. The group looked exhausted, though. Michael had the most life points at 40, but the other three had around 20. Aelita still had 100, but it wasn't going well as the second barrier was destroyed.

"It's a long story. But I got the program now! I am launching it." Jeremie put the Cd in and it began running.

Eventually, the middle tank and the right mega tanks were destroyed. But the third barrier was shattering as Aelita didn't look like she had enough energy to hold the third one. When the Mega tank fired the barrier was shattered and Aelita was in the line of fire. The tank charged began to charge a blast.

"Laser arrows!"

"YAH!"

"GO!"

The three warriors fired arrows, fans, and a windblast to completely obliterate the remaining Mega tank.

"What were you thinking idiot!?" Michael put a fist onto Aelita head and it was so hard that there would have been a red spot where Michael hit her. "You exhausted yourself to the absolute limit there. If I didn't know any better I would say that you couldn't do three barriers until just now!"

"Hm… That sound familiar to me, though." Aelita had a little devilish tone to her voice. She smirked a little as the other group realized what she was trying to do.

"Yeah man… I could have sworn-"

"That someone here-"

"Did something like that not too long ago." Odd finished the statement and Michael looked confused.

"What are you talking about? Who has… Oh…" Michael now realizing what he said and what they were implying. They were all laughing as Michael knew that he had been a fool. "Alright… I am sorry for what I did for these last few weeks." Michael bowed to them in defeat.

"As funny as this is, the program is ready for you two." Jeremie now chiming in. "Aelita, Michael, step into the middle circle and I will bring you in."

"See you on the other side," Aelita said before going into the tower.

"I can't believe that I am going to earth." Michael's hands were trembling. In truth, Michael was scared of going to earth. What would he find? What did those memories mean? Who… Who was Michael?

"It's your turn, Michael." Jeremie now piercing his thoughts. Three arms pushed him closer to the tower and he looked to see that his friends were standing right there.

"Thanks you guys." Michael got a thumbs up from Odd as the other two waved their hands. Michael stepped onto the middle. 'That's right. No matter who I am. Right now, I am Michael, part of the Lyoko gang to stop XANA."

"Code: Earth." Michael began to see all of the flashes before him before he felt nothing. He felt that he was in a space with nothingness.

"Well done Michael." A voice echoed through space. A bright light shined in the darkness.

"! That voice!" Michael's eyes were shut and he couldn't open them.

"Go. Go to earth." And Michael disappeared from the space. "Go, y son. Protect Aelita."

The feeling went away from nothingness as he felt a hard cold surface on the ground. And then it became very bright, as the scanner began to open Michael opened his eyes to the group saw a silver-haired figure and with a very toned body similar to the one on Lyoko. Michael looked to see Jeremie, Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd. He then looked around and saw Aelita recovering from the jump to earth.

"We made it." Aelita having support from Yumi.

"Yeah. Earth." Michael began to stand with Ulrich. The two fist-bumped and began to celebrate.


	6. Chapter 5: The real world

Author's Note: Not much of one really. The next chapter will take longer than this one.

* * *

 **Chapter 5: The real world**

"School huh? I never thought that I would be doing that." Michael said with his new outfit. All the clothes he had on were black to go with his silver hair. The gang was currently walking throughout Kadic and while Michael was confident, Aelita was trailing in the back.

"You are telling me! We have a history test today and you two got out of it." Odd having the cartoon tears fall down his face.

"Come guys. It's just a history class." Jeremie said with his attitude.

"I wish it was a class in computers. I don't have a clue on any history." Michael grinned at the statement and began coughed a little before going into his little rant.

"Hmph! Well, I do Aelita! You should know that the revolutionary war began in 1775! It was an armed conflict between Great Britain and thirteen of its North American colonies that after the onset of the war declared independence as the United States of America." Michael sprouted from his head.

"... Maybe you should be the one teaching the class." Ulrich now coming out of his little trance.

"Hey, when you go through all of the towers databases you would be like this too." Michael now shrugging.

The group entered the classroom and Michael took the lead and had a seat in one of the empty chairs. Aelita followed his suit and sat in the other one. Michael yawned really quick and noticed that all of a sudden he felt exhausted.

"Whoa did you just yawn Michael?" Odd now asking in a joking matter. "Wow, I never noticed it until now! You guys might want to see this." The gang looked at Michael and saw very heavy black circles around his eyes.

"Why do I feel this way?" Michael now wondering why the wave of exhaustion hit him like a train.

"Your body is well… sleepy. It's a thing where you have to sleep and recover your energy." Jeremie now shocked at how long Michael must have worked for the program. His exhaustion carried into the real world after all.

"I will be fine for now. But I am going to need some of this "sleep." Besides that, I am feeling okay." Michael said with a thumbs up hoping that would convince them.

"Who does that new girl think she is? All she cares about is having boys around her!" Sissi now yelling making Michael hold his head.

"Too loud…" Everyone around him laughed at that. Even Nicholas was having a hard time holding his laughter. It was quickly stopped though when Sissi gave him a death glare.

"Can you help me with this stuff?" Aelita whispered to Michael.

"Honestly? I am not that great either. I only read and watched a few documentaries about this stuff. My accent makes that very clear. Be yourself. It's worked so far." Michael pointed to the rest of the gang behind them. "You got them to lean on right?"

"Yeah. But don't think you aren't included." Aelita said with confidence. Michael simply nodded and closed his eyes.

"So then! We have two new students joining us today! Let's quiet down so that way they can introduce themselves." The teacher looked at both to signal it was their turn. Michael signaled for Aelita to go first.

"I,umm...my…" Aelita looked very uncomfortable but Michael gave her a small slug on her back. She looked towards Michael who simply had a grin of confidence. Aelita then got her bearings together and was able to speak out. "My name is Aelita." She sat back down.  
"Aelita. And who are you, young man?" The teacher now looking at Michael.

"I am Michael. Originally I am from Korea." When Yumi first looked at Michael, she noticed his Korean features. She decided to make it more convincing, he would be from there. As it turns out it worked… Until the teacher started asking questions.

"Oh? Korea huh? We never had a student from Korea. And to top it off the silver hair. What was Korea like?" This question shocked the rest of the gang as they didn't think the teacher would ask in-depth questions. However, Yumi prepared for that and gave him some culture general tips.

"It's okay. A lot of traffic and a lot of traveling. Not too much different than France in a way. And while silver hair is rare, I will say that Aelita's hair is much more unique." Aelita blushed a little as Michael finished his little speech, but it convinced the teacher nonetheless.

"Well then! Let me be the first to welcome you to our Kadic Junior High. Now turn to page 175 in your textbooks." Aelita looked nervous as she looked around and Michael handed her the textbook.

"Don't be so nervous. You will be fine. Trust your instincts." Michael gave her a reassuring smile.

"Yeah. I wish I had the confidence that you had." Aelita looked at her book.

"Hey, look at me." Aelita looked to see that Michael's hand was slightly shaking. "I am nervous too. Just better at hiding it. But, it's exciting, isn't it? Earth. Come on, try and have a little fun." With that Aelita nodded and the lesson went on without any problems after that.

After the lesson had ended the gang sat at some park benches were Michael was lying flat on one.

"So, is he asleep?" Odd asked after taking his nap in history.

"Nope. I am awake as you guys call it. Just trying to rest my eyes. I could barely focus during history." Michael still having his eyes closed.

"I like history. Although you have to admit, you guys fight a lot. There are so many wars." Aelita almost regretted that as soon as she said that but it was quiet.

"Too much energy… Can't focus." Michael simply said and the entire gang laughed.

"Hey, guys. So how are the earthlings doing?" Yumi now approaching them.

"In truth, not all that bad. I am struggling a little with focusing. But, besides that, I am taking in these senses. I like nature. Very refreshing feel." Michael still lying flat on the bench.

"I was going to say something similar. I'm adapting to all my new senses. Like the air, the colors, the smells." Aelita now taking a big whiff of the air.

"Well, I think it's time that we deactivated the supercomputer," Jeremie said. Michael sprang up from his bench.

"Yeah, I don't think we should wait for XANA's invitation." Ulrich agreeing.

"And besides, who wants to go to Lyoko now that Aelita is here with us?" Odd sighed.

"You do Odd. As far as I remember, we kept a scorecard for most monsters and I am still holding the top spot." The entire group laughed at the joke while Odd was a little red.

"You will think this is crazy, but it scares me. Lyoko, after all, was my home." Aelita looking a little down.

"Although I couldn't remember much of it, I do agree. It feels weird to having to say goodbye to it." Michael having a little frown.

"I am worried about what effects it will have on Michael and me." Aelita dropped that little bombshell on the group.

"Hey, no need to worry okay?" Michael now coming up to her. "If anything happens, these guys have our back right?" The gang smirked and nodded. Jeremie grabbed Aelita's hand and they went off to the factory.

The group descended down to the factory floor from the ropes. Michael and Aelita were introduced to Jim or Jimbo. They went to the elevator and then to the super calculator room. As the computer rose Aelita seemed nervous while Michael's heart was pounding.

THUMP!

 _'What is this feeling? It's as if…'_ Jeremie began to approach the super calculator.

THUMP!

 _'Something is telling me…'_ He opened the panel.

THUMP!

 _'This isn't what we should be doing.'_ He gave his speech about XANA.

THUMP! And with that, Jeremie cut the power. Both Aelita and Michael feel unconscious.

 **Michael's Flashback- Before XANA three weeks before the transfer.**

"Hey, dad?" Michael asked his father in his study.

"Yes? What is it, son?" Franz asked the silver haired boy. He noticed that he seemed troubled by something.

"Well… It's about Aelita…" Franz had never seen his eldest seemed so worried. "Recently, she has been talking about some bullies at her school. It seems that sometimes they think it's fun to pick on her. Calling her names, bullying her, taking things away from her." Michael clenched his fists in anger. But the anger went away quickly. "I want to take her to school a few times while you are working there. Please father." Michael now bowing in front of his dad.

Although Franz would have to lie to the school, he knew that Michael wouldn't come to him without good reason. Therefore, he decided to go ahead with Michael's plan.

"Okay. But don't do anything too rash." Michael smiled and nodded.

The next day…

"Why are you coming with daddy and me?" Aelita now asking as they both rode their bikes to school.

"Oh, well he said that he needs some help with grading and some programming stuff. I am sure that it will only be for a few days." Michael hated lying, but it was for Aelita's sake.

"Hmm… okay!" Aelita laughed as she began to accelerate more.

"Hey! Come back here! I have no idea where the school is!" Michael chasing and pedaling with all of his might.

As they approached the entrance, Michael saw how big the school really was. In terms of the campus itself, it was very open for kids his age. He wondered if maybe someday he should go to school. But, for now, the plan was to stay at home until high school. The two walked in and Aelita gave him a little tour of the place. However, it was cut short when three figures approached them.

"Hey look it's the girl with pink hair." A blond figure stated.

"Yeah, how about we lock her in the gym like last time?" A redhead then signaled his hands for a lock.

"Or better yet? Why don't we just embarrass her in front of everyone again!?" Finally the leader, a black haired figure caused all three of them to laugh. Aelita couldn't look anymore defeated.

"Oi." A voice said with killer intent. The four looked towards Michael, who had pure rage in his eyes. If the boys hadn't seen hell before, then they got a brief taste of it here. "Why don't you say those things again? That way-" Michael cracked his knuckles and neck. "I can seriously kill you." A crowd now formed around the 5 of them and the three boys now knew that the entire school was watching. The three boys brief backed away, before laughing a little bit.

"Hey look! This one has silver hair! must have had weirdos when they were born."The leader said. While he got a few chuckles out of the crowd, that stopped when Michael released more of his killer intent. The boys felt trapped. In Michael's eyes… It was like a wolf was stalking them. Knowing that he could kill them at any time, yet he does it out of pleasure.

"You… Are you just going to stand there huh? Take this!" The leader now striking a fist towards Michael.

"Michael!" Aelita cried out.

BAM! Michael got socked right in the face. But… The strange part was that he didn't even flinch. He didn't even move from his spot. Instead, he simply continued to stand there not taking his gaze off the leader. It was more piercing than before. It was as if someone was looking into his soul. The crowd began to stir and Michael simply stood there.

"So? Was that it?" Michael simply took the fist that hit him and pushed it off. "That was nothing. I couldn't even feel the impact."

"... You… BASTARD!" The leader pulled a knife from his back pocket and began to make a slash motion towards Michael.

"MICHAEL!" Aelita having tears in her eyes. It was all in slow motion as Michael looked over towards her with soft eyes. He mouthed a single phrase but she didn't hear it.

Sphhhlt!

Blood… That was all that anyone saw. Michael moving a little back after seeing the knife in hand. His reaction was too slow and as a result had a huge slash across his chest with his shirt now torn in pieces. Blood pooling down the wound. It was so quiet. The crowd had stopped. The other two friends couldn't believe their leader would go so far.

"...This… Is… Nothing." Michael coughed out some blood. "This… pain… is NOTHING COMPARED TO AELITA'S PAIN!" Michael gained his composure, took a stance and held a fist out.

 **Flashback… Training with Ippo**

"Ha..ha...ha.. I did it! I mastered it completely!" Michael had spent months and months trying to perfect his own technique for the upcoming tournament. He finally mastered it and was panting out of exhaustion. Ippo was around 19 years old and he was recently named a champion.

"Good job! You really made it your own!" Ippo was happy for Michael and for himself in a way. He would always remember when an old technique used to get the better of him when he was a boxer. However, Ippo had a frown on his face.

"Michael. Michael Chang." Ippo now looking serious at Michael. He immediately noticed and looked at his master. "Unless I give your permission, you aren't allowed to use this technique."

"...EHH!? WHY? WHY IPPO?" Michael was confused. No BEYOND confused! After all that time he couldn't use the technique he had been training for so long!

"Because it could easily end a person's life." Michael then shuts up very quickly. "This technique has that much destructive power behind it." Michael didn't know what to say to that. "However! I will allow you to use it on your own if you follow these three situations! The first! It's in a match and you deem that person is truly capable of using it and you are prepared for the consequences. The second! You are outside of the ring and you deem that you are in some trouble. And the third situation…" Ippo went quiet as the other two settled in. "I hope that this wouldn't happen. But should it, I hope you steel your resolve and yourself." Michael looked at his master with serious intention. "And that is…"

 **Flashback over…**

'And that is…' Michael began his motion of an uppercut with his left hand that took the leader off by surprise. He planted his front foot forward and punched straight up towards his face. The leader's head was blown back a little and some blood came from him then in the same motion, he had a right punch going right across the reeled back head. In that moment everyone saw silver wolf teeth sinking into its prey.

 **"SILVER FANG!"** 'If those important to you are truly in harm's way!'

BANG! The leader's face was in shambles after that little exchange. His face began to fly backward. The crowd, however, could have sworn they saw the leader being swallowed and in between the teeth of a silver wolf. Michael stood there panting and before he knew it he passed out as well.

"Michael!" Aelita called out to him as he was falling. He was losing a lot of blood fast. "Someone! Someone help him! Call an ambulance! Call a teacher! Anything!"

 **End of dream.**

Jim and Jeremie were staring at the two and wondered exactly what had happened. Aelita was in one bed and Michael wasn't too far away in another. Jeremie noticed that Michael's shirt was a little loose so he decided to move it.

"AGH!" Jeremie staggered back.

"What is it, Jeremie? What's wrong?" Jim came running to Jeremie's side and saw under Michael's shirt.

"Holy crap… This guy has a six pack!" Jim yelled with zeal. "Man what I would do for that kind of body!"

"No, that Jim! Cut it out! Look underneath more." Jeremie facepalmed.

"It's Jimbo! And… oh." Both Jeremie and Jim looked in shock or horror at the scar against Michael's right side.

"What could have caused this?" Jim now asking.

"Mostly likely a sharp object… But that's impossible! There is no way that he could have gotten that on Lyoko!" Jeremie was very confused by all of this.

Michael woke up from his bed in a cold sweat.

"Whoa whoa easy there." Jim now calming Michael down after his sudden revival. Michael looked around and saw that Jeremie and Jim were standing next to him, while Aelita was in a bed nearby.

"What… What just happened?" Michael confused on what exactly happened.

"You fainted. You were in somewhat of a deep sleep." Michael struggling in his mind what to think. Michael was panting very hard and was sweating from head to toe.

"I… I had an another one of those…"

"You mean dreams?" Jeremie now very curious.

"Yeah. Recently, I have been having these dreams. And they seem so real… But I am not sure what to make of them." Michael now looking towards his chest.

 **THUMP!** _'There it is my heart beats, my senses go crazy… Almost like Lyoko.'_ Michael looked at the scar and noticed that it was similar to the one in his dream. But there was something that was bothering him _. 'That couldn't be possible right?'_ In Michael's dream, he only had brief images of what had happened. His trainer Ippo, his Silver Fang motion, and then a pink-haired figure over his face crying.

Aelita began to stir bringing Michael out of his thoughts. He looked to see that Jeremie was explaining the same thing he explained to him.

"Well, why don't we give you an analysis?" Jeremie said to both of them.

"Yeah, that should work fine." Michael didn't wait for them as he went to the elevator. Aelita looked concerned but followed along.

Both Aelita and Michael went into the scanner and got transferred for a brief analysis.

"We are ready to begin the analysis. That's fine you two, you can come back now."

As the three examined the analysis Jim was completely puzzled about what they were looking at. After analyzing the data and concluding that the virus linked them to XANA, Aelita and Jeremie were convinced. However, a silver-haired figure wasn't.

"Hmm… I am not convinced." Michael now looking at the screen again.

"What do you mean by that?" Aelita now questioning Michael.

"Honestly? This doesn't look like one to me. I mean the programming is similar. But, hasn't XANA tricked you guys before?" Michael now questioning everything.

"Yes, he has. However, the data doesn't lie, though." Jeremie trying to counter. He hasn't been wrong once yet with his calculations. And this data says so.

"I am just saying for the sake of argument. For all I know I am wrong. We have to consider the worst of the worst. He is growing more and more powerful isn't he?" Michael having a hand to his face.

"While I agree with Jeremie on this, you bring up a good point. We have to consider the worst possibilities. It isn't too bad to be careful." Aelita bringing the discussion to a close.

"Regardless, we should get you two home. It's getting kind of late. I will take you guys back to Yumi's." Jeremie now getting off the chair.

The outside. It was a refreshing feeling to Michael and Aelita as they started to use their new senses to their full potential.

"What a strange sensation." Aelita now bringing her arms around her body.

"You shivered that's all. It's a reaction you get on account of the cold." Jeremie now smiling more than he ever had before.

Michael, on the other hand, was thinking about some things. Granted that didn't mean that he wasn't testing his new senses as well.

' _These dreams… They feel so real. First Lyoko. That voice telling me to do something. Then I had a dream about a time that I didn't know. Then when I was about to be out of Lyoko, that voice came back to me. And finally this last dream.'_ Michael gripped his chest just to the right. In truth, he had no idea who that voice was or what it wanted. All he remembered was the voice saying something about memories. _'I honestly felt it was so real. Almost like the real world. And that pink-haired figure…'_

"Hey! Michael!" Aelita slugged him on the shoulder.

"Oh sorry. What were you guys talking about?" Michael coming out of his thoughts.

"We are going into this photo booth! Want to come?" Aelita looking happy as ever. Jeremie looked a little annoyed but had a good fake smile.

"No thanks. You guys go on without me." Michael simply smiled and waved. The two went into the booth and Michael simple sat as the wind breeze followed through his silver hair.

 _'Alive huh? It is nice to be on earth.'_ Michael leaned against the wall.

When Aelita and Jeremie were finished they saw Michael smiling up against the wall with a smile. Honestly, in Jeremie's eyes, he looked like a movie star. And Aelita didn't miss that either.

"He looks happy," Aelita whispered to Jeremie.

"Yeah. I would say that he is going to be fine on earth." They got Michael out of his little trance and they continued to Yumi's. When they got to the front, Michael went ahead of them and knocked on the door.

"Oh! You must be Michael! Aelita's brother!" Yumi's mother answered with glee.

"Yes, it is an honor to meet you Miss Ishiyama." Michael bowed. Yumi was really trying to sell the fact that he was from Korea, so he had to learn all kinds of respects to make it look convincing. This didn't pass by Miss Ishiyama as she was flattered.

"Where is your sister?" She wondered.

"She is outside talking to a friend. We are preparing for another day of school and she is getting the groundwork." Michael lied through his teeth. In all honest, throughout the night Michael felt the vibe those two were giving off. He thought best not to interfere.

"Would you please show me where we will be staying tonight?" Michael asked and was lead inside. The house overall was a good size. Mr. Ishiyama was sitting on the couch reading the paper. Michael bowed and introduced himself as well. They went by and was shown the room they were staying. It wasn't too big, but two mats were laid out, along with an assortment of clothes in bags.

Michael decided that he would leave most of that stuff for tomorrow. He decided to take on of the various books off the shelf and read it.

"What is this?" Michael wondered as he pulled off one book with an interesting cover on it.

 **Shogi for Dummies: Volume 1**

"Hmm… I wonder what this could be about."

 **The following day**

Michael had spent all night reading the rules and the moves of Shogi. Although he did fall asleep around 5 in the morning, he still got up before Aelita which was a surprise. After Yumi told the two how to get ready and all the morning routines, they headed to school. The three looked towards the other three and the gang was together.

"So how was your first night on earth?" Ulrich asked.

"Sleeping is really great," Aelita replied.

"I was absorbed by a new game," Michael said holding his little book for everyone.

"Shogi?" Odd asked. "Is that a new video game?"

"No Odd. It's a strategy that is pretty popular in Japan. I thought that since I am good with strategies this could be helpful." Michael replied. Odd looked confused as the gang looked at Michael with concern.

"When exactly did you go to bed?" Yumi asked as she didn't even notice Michael up when she went to the room to check on them.

"Oh. I think 5 am?" The entire group looked at him before they all realized something and started laughing. Jeremie and Michael were left out, though.

"What? What's so funny?" Jeremie asked.

"No no no! It can't be!" Odd now rolling on the floor.

"We really DO have two Einstein's!" Ulrich trying his best not to cry.

"Hey! Cut me some slack!" Michael laughed along with them and eventually, Jeremie joined in. They all said their goodbyes and headed to their next classes.

Science class for Michael wasn't too interesting. Although, it made him laugh pretty hard when Sissi didn't know what a prime number was and Aelita completely outwitted the teacher. It was all interrupted though when a student when screaming down the hall and a kankrelat was chasing him.

"Everyone get back!" Ulrich dragged all of the other students back into the room. Everyone was in the corner of the room, while the gang gathered around.

"XANA's changed tactics. He brought a creature to earth! How is that possible?" Jeremie wondering how this could have happened.

"Well, I am assuming he used the same materialization program and modified it to his creatures," Michael said.

"Even so…"

"Well, what are we going to do? Who knows what could happen?" Odd cried out.

"What we always do we fight them!" Ulrich slammed his fist against his palm."You four get to the factory. Yumi and I will try and hold them off here at the school!"

As the group began to make their way into the hallway, two Kankrelats spotted them and began opening fire. Ulrich dodged the shots but one was heading for Aelita. It nearly hit Aelita but Michael stepped in front of her to take the shot.

"Michael!" The group cried out. Michael held his chest and saw it hit near his scar. He felt his insides collapse a little and he reeled back from the pain.

"GO!" Michael was in so much pain only adrenaline was keeping him conscious. The four made their way to the sewers while Ulrich and Yumi began to defend the school.

"It's not looking good. He is barely conscious." Odd supporting Michael as they made way through the sewers.

"Sorry Odd," Michael muttered out as he began fading in and out.

"Don't be, let's just get to you to Lyoko safely. Hopefully, the pain will be reduced there."

The group made their way down to the scanner room where a Kankrelat was causing problems for their comrade Jim. Odd picking up a nail gun on the way down, began firing and leading the bug to Jim who destroyed it.

"Jeremie you have to transfer me to Lyoko," Aelita said as Michael sat in one of the scanners.

"What?" Jeremie stuttered. "Have you forgotten about XANA's virus? What if XANA stops you from deactivating the tower? Or from returning to earth?"

"That's a risk we got to take." Aelita now holding Jeremie's shoulder. "Think about all the possibly monsters that could be transferred."

"Me too. Right now, I could care less about my freedom. The school comes first. Ulrich and Yumi are doing their best for us. We can respect them by doing the same." Michael barely got out.

Jeremie agrees to the last decision and heads upstairs to begin the procedure. The infected scanner pops open before the Kankrelat is immediately destroyed.

"Transfer Odd! Transfer Aelita! Transfer Michael!"

"Scanner Odd! Scanner Aelita! Scanner Michael!"

"Virtualization!"

The three warriors descended and while two fell on their butts the purple figure felt superior.

"Being transferred on Lyoko is very strange," Aelita said reeling from the little pain.

"Yeah, but you get used to it."

"As much as I would want to chat, I am still in pain and would love to get to a tower to recover." The three began to run down the never-ending pathway.

"Watch out! You got a squad of 5 hornets heading your way!" Jeremie let them know as the buzz became very apparent.

"You two go ahead! I will take care of these things!" Odd yelled as the two ran ahead. He began firing his laser arrows at them.

"Take that!" Odd fired an arrow point blank at the hornet but got shot immediately after.

"You are losing too many life points Odd!" Jeremie let him know that he was on twenty points.

The four hornets were still surrounding Odd as he was running low on ammo. The squadron's formation began to make it's dive on Odd only to be broken up.

"Take that!" Michael yelled from a distance firing a powerful wind blast to destroy two hornets and let Odd breathe for a minute. "You didn't say anything about not getting help!"

Odd let out a sigh before getting hit by two lasers and being virtualized. The hornets approached Michael and expected to see two blasts. He pulled out his sword and then deflected the two shots. But the other three shots in his back surprised him.

"Jeremie! Why didn't you say anything about another squad of hornets?" Michael was shocked that Jeremie didn't say anything as the two hornets he destroyed were simply replaced by three more.

"I didn't see anything on my map!" Jeremie began typing furiously. "Yumi and Ulrich are on the way!"

"Well that's great isn't it?!" Michael began running with Aelita. They dodged lasers and ran furiously before they spotted a cave.

"Go! I will hold them off here!" Michael held the Katana at his side. Aelita began skating in the cave towards the tower as Michael began deflecting lasers towards the oncoming hornets. The hornets then switched tactics and fired their acid down towards Michael. Michael was at mercy of the acid as two hornets went by him.

"Tch! Jeremie! Let Aelita know that she as got one behind her!" Michael charged his fist with energy.

"Windblast!" Michael fired off the wind and hit one hornet directly, while the other one wings were clipped and fell into the ocean. He got hit in the chest by the remaining hornet and felt worse when it was in the chest.

"YAH!" The last hornet was destroyed and Michael was relieved to have reinforcements.

"Glad to see you two." Michael got helped up by Ulrich's hand. "Come on, we got two more hornets to deal with."

Aelita tried her best to get away from the hornets but it was to no avail as she kept getting fired at. She saw that Yumi, Ulrich, and Michael behind her and was relieved before a laser nearly hit her feet. She began spinning out and its partner was ready to take another shot.

"Now Yumi!" Jeremie yelled through the mic.

"YAH!" Yumi threw her fan and hit the icicle and destroyed one of the hornets.

"What goes around come around! Windblast!" Michael fired his concentrated wind blast and propelled the fan forward to hit the last hornet.

"That was close!" Aelita got up and skated towards the party.

"Come on now, you know we would never let you go it alone." Ulrich patted her head.

"Hey, we can't let the school go it alone either." Yumi motioned for them to get going.

Aelita entered the tower and began to ascend the platform. She entered the Code Lyoko before getting a return to the past. The gang was back in their room, while Aelita was on the screen and Michael was sitting around.

"Aelita, Michael, we are restarting the materialization process immediately. We need to wipe out XANA before he launches another attack." Jeremie was reaching for a key on the keyboard before Aelita spoke.

"Jeremie, it's impossible. The virus is still in me I can feel it." Aelita shook her head.

"We still got to try it! Maybe you can be treated here on earth!" Jeremie frustrated with the results.

"No Jeremie. You know as well as I do, as long as this virus is inside of me you can't destroy XANA without destroying Michael and me at the same time."

"But there is a way, and Aelita knows it." Michael now opening a screen that popped up on the computer.

"What do you mean?" Jeremie now shocked and curious.

"Michael-" Aelita looked over at him.

"As long as I am here, Aelita could live with you guys on earth. I can sense towers and let you guys know when an attack happens. I can even access the towers and access their files." Michael began to explain. Although only Yumi and Aelita could sense from sadness in his voice. Jeremie seemed enthusiastic about the idea until Aelita yelled.

"You can't do that! That's not fair! Why should I get the special treatment all of a sudden?! I want you to be free as well." Michael paused at Aelita's statement.

"Guys, can you give us a few moments?" Michael asked with a serious voice. The gang looked at each other and all nodded. The screens were cut and then it was only the two of them. "I know that it isn't fair for what I am asking. I love the earth as much as you do. But, you have known them longer than I have. Compared to me, I know that they care about you more." Aelita tried to retaliate, but she realized it was true. Deep down, she knew that the gang had greater feelings for her despite how unfair it sounded. Michael saw Aelita's sadness and did a little flick to her head.

"Ow! What was that for?" Aelita now holding the spot where she got hit.

"You are being silly. It's not like I am going to be gone forever. I will be on earth from time to time until Jeremie finds whatever is wrong with us. In the meantime, you get to live your life. A life that you have probably needed longer than me. I have a lot of things to keep me occupied. And if you really miss me that bad, you can just come back here. I am sure that you will know what the virtualization process is." Michael grinned at Aelita.

"But-"

"While I am sad that I will not be joining you, I am happy for you. You are able to live your life out! I mean how cool is that? So just live your life for both of us until I get there okay?" Michael then walked towards the access panel to let the comlink open back up. But then he felt a little presence around him. He turned to see Aelita was hugging him,

"Thank you." Aelita simply whispered out. Michael turned to her and returned the hug.

"Your welcome." Michael smiled.


	7. Chapter 6:Ulrich's Trial and New Order

Author's Note: Yay! New chapter! Also to the four of you who reviewed thank you! Jim will! AND I REPEAT WILL! Be play a role sometimes in the throughout the chapters. But not for the reasons you think. Jim has lost his memories… Or has he? STAY TUNED!

 _'Thoughts'_

 **Transitions/Important**

 **'Memories'**

* * *

Chapter 6: Ulrich's trial and New order

A few weeks had passed since Michael and Aelita had their little moment. Aelita had been settling down in Yumi's place. While her parents did question where Michael was, Yumi convinced them that Michael was on campus and Aelita's process was taking longer. They were skeptical at first, but Michael did show up from time to time to reassure them that campus life was good.

Aelita had also learned the virtualization process and did visit Michael almost every day. She would tell him about the classes and how boring they were: To how great that the gang was and how the earth was. Michael smiled every time that she would rant about that stuff. It was like a little kid learning how to ride a bike. Once they did, they couldn't stop ranting about it. While Aelita did feel guilty every time, Michael reassured her that it was okay.

Michael sat in the tower of Lyoko, reading through some old files and reading more on the board game of shogi. Ever since Michael discovered it, he played it every day on his access panel. It passed the time nicely. He liked the strategy behind it, and it showed during the Lyoko missions they had. He decided to step outside the tower and play around a little. He was surprised when he saw Ulrich in front of him in the desert sector.

"Ulrich! What can I do for you? And more importantly, Um..how did you get here?" Michael was curious as to what Ulrich would possibly need from him.

"Aelita showed all of us how to get here, in case that Jeremie was to get attacked." Ulrich sheepishly said. Michael thought about it and it made sense that the others would learn how to use the supercomputer. Jeremie wouldn't be there for them all the time.

"Okay. So what do you need then?"

"Um… I wanted to… Ask you for some advice." Ulrich seemed nervous all of a sudden.

"Oh? On what?" Michael now curious

"On Yu-" Ulrich stopped his statement.

"Oh, Yu-? I can't understand you, Ulrich."

"On... your awesome techniques! Yeah, that's it! I want to learn a new technique! Show me how I can learn one! After all, you did right?" Ulrich shouted triumphantly. Michael didn't look convinced but gave in.

"Hmm… Well okay then. Follow me then, I know a good spot for you." Michael lead them deeper in the desert sector and led them out to a very heavy rock formation. The rocks were all in different sizes, surfaces, to put it bluntly, no rock was the same.

"Ulrich your techniques are super sprint, triplicate, and triangulate right?" Ulrich nodded. "Hmm… Why not trying making a 4th clone?" Michael snapped his fingers.

"A 4th clone?" Ulrich looked curiously.

"Yeah, with a 4th clone you would be able to make more options for attacks. Additionally, you would be able to cut someone's escape route much more easily. You would be able to expand your triangle into a square. It would work out for you." Michael explained.

"Wow. That's a lot of insight." Ulrich was beyond shocked that Michael had come up with all of that.

"Yeah. Shogi gives you a better analytical mind. I always thought that it would be best for you. So that's why we are out here. You are going to be running on these different surfaces and gain some stamina first." Michael explained as he began running on the rocks and jumping from them.

"But, if I am just going to be running, then why not in the mountain sector or ice sector? These sectors had the flattest of plains and ice would have been hard to run on, while the mountains would have provided hard surfaces." Ulrich said as he began running.

"You will learn it pretty soon Ulrich!" Michael cried out.

BEEP! Michael looked over to see he was being contacted.

"Oh! Aelita! What's going on?" Michael looked through his little screen and saw her. Aelita was in Jeremie's room. Apparently, Jeremie was needed for some science project so he wasn't there at the moment.

"Hi, Michael. Have you seen Ulrich? He said that he was going to do something and I haven't seen him around." Aelita looked concerned. Michael simply grinned and pointed his screen towards Ulrich who tried to make a jump between rocks and lost speed causing him to fall. "I see…"

"Does he need to be back soon? I could easily take him out with a wind blast." Aelita laughed a little at the statement.

"No, he doesn't. The rest of the day is free time so he doesn't need to be back till later." Michael sighed. "What's wrong Michael? Something bothering you?"

"Nah, it's just this feeling. I am worrying too much." Michael brushed it off and Aelita didn't look convinced.

"Michael, usually when you feel something, it's usually right. What's going on?" Aelita's insight. Michael swore that it was going to be the death of him.

"Over the past few days, XANA hasn't done anything. No towers, no attacks, not even one monster for me to play with. Not to mention on the last few missions not even once did the Scyphozoa show up. It makes me feel that XANA is up to something. I just don't know what." The two simply looked at each other. Both trying to think of a possible explanation but ended up not finding one. "On another good note, though, the vehicles are almost done."

"You mean the ones that Jeremie and I sent you? What did you think of them?" Aelita now curious as to how they were doing.

"Well, the specs seem fine. The overall power shouldn't affect the computer that much and not too many resources are needed. The only problem is…" Michael had dark eyes.

"The only problem is what?" Aelita now concerned with an issue with the programming.

"WHERE THE HECK IS MINE?" Michael screamed and Aelita could have sworn the entire boy's floor could have heard him. "I know that my sprinting is better than Ulrich's and I could outrun this thing but come on!"

"Sorry, Jeremie didn't think you would need one with your abilities. I didn't create them, I checked them." Aelita had a cheeky grin on her face. Michael was obviously joking and although he would have liked one, in truth he knew he could run circles around those things. Of course, it would cost him some life points slowly over time.

"Why don't we have them come in tomorrow? We can give them a test run then. After that, we can see the results and data and go from there."

"Sure thing. I will let Jeremie know once he comes back." Aelita told him.

"Alright. See you soon Strawberry head." Aelita shook her head over the nickname.

"You too Wolf." Michael followed her suit. The connection broke off and Michael looked to see Ulrich panting heavily.

"These rocks make your body do irregular motions that you aren't used to. Additionally, you have to bend your legs more and get more power in your stride to make certain jumps. That's why you failed that last jump. Honestly, Odd could easily beat you despite your speed." Ulrich was going to retaliate, but he realized he was right. He was always running in a straight line and only could dodge to the left or right. "Your moves are easy to predict. That's why XANA has had a bit of an edge on you. In that last mission, that block was able to freeze you because you stood in the back of your clones. If you could make your movement more unique or unpredictable, then it would allow you to ascend to your next clone." Michael looked at Ulrich and all he could see was one thing.

 **Determination. (This will be important later).**

Sometimes, the technique isn't good enough. You have to be willing to train no matter how long it takes to get results. Even if you only got 1% there one day, you would have to continue and continue relentlessly. Michael knew that Ulrich needed that in order to keep up with XANA's activities.

"Now then, let's get you back home. You have done enough for one day. This fourth clone will only come if you are willing to make it so. So it's up to you for your training menu. After all, I spent a long time before I could upgrade my dragon draw." Michael helped Ulrich up and pulled out his Katana. "Oh, by the way, Ulrich, if you need advice for Yumi, then you should have said so from the start."

"What? How did-" STAB! Ulrich didn't finish the statement.

 **The next day…**

"WAHOOO!" Odd cried out on his new overboard. In the desert sector, Michael, Odd and Ulrich were racing across. Michael had a silver aura around him with his sprint, while Ulrich had his overbike and Odd had the overboard. Michael currently in the middle observing the work.

"So far so good Jeremie! Speed and power are both looking good! The bike is running smooth and the board is about how I expected it!" Michael knew that Odd could be crazy with his new toys. So he had taken off the program that calculates the trajectory for flight. He laughed internally as they came across a cave. "Alright, you two! I need full speed here!" The two grinned as big as they could before taking off. Michael was sprinting behind them observing the power and seeing in anything needs fixing. He decided that it wouldn't be fun if he wasn't going all out. Michael upped his aura and began sprinting much faster.

"Hey! Come back here!/You asked for it now Michael." Odd and Ulrich both said at the same time truly pushing their vehicles to the limit.

"Odd! I didn't have time-" Jeremie got cut off really quick.

"Jeremie! SH!" Michael held a finger to his mouth. Jeremie immediately understood and said nothing. You could feel Jeremie and Michael's grin.

They twisted and turned before they came to the end and Michael held a V up for his victory. He went off a ramp and jumped as high as he could before skidding across. Odd went off the same ramp and ended up crashing his board, while Ulrich grinned and laughed at his purple friend. Yumi and Aelita came over on the overwing and looked at him.

"Odd!" Yumi cried out. Aelita got off to make sure he was okay.

"Yeah, I am good. The overboard still needs more work, Jeremie."

"Maybe it's the rider. I mean how else could I trust you with that thing? I thought maybe that you could do without a program for trajectory. Perhaps I need to have Jeremie program it all over again for you." Michael with his sarcastic voice. Everyone laughed at his antics and Odd looked annoyed but knew he was joking.

"Ha ha very funny! I would like to see you two on an overboard!" Odd shot back.

"I guess surfing just isn't my thing." Ulrich waving his hands in a surfing motion.

"As much as I would love too, I can still outrun you with my legs. So I am good for now." Michael pointing out.

"Sorry to interrupt your fascinating conversation but XANA has spotted you," Jeremie said as the screen began beeping. "But… That's really weird… I don't know what it is." He began typing seriously to find the source.

"Hey, what's that?!" Yumi pointed towards the strange creature. The gang observed the 4 legged monster coming through to them in the smoke.

"I don't know, but it looks like trouble big time," Ulrich said reaching for his Katana.

 _'No way! My bad feeling…'_ Michael gripped his hands and energy began pouring into them unconsciously.

"Michael…" Aelita knew how Michael was feeling. Yet again, he felt this coming and couldn't do anything about it. To him, he felt useless. It was a fortune teller saying your future yet you could do anything about it.

"In any case, it says here that it has more life points than the others!" Jeremie exclaimed looking at the screen. The creature appeared in front of them and pointed it's two guns at them. Michael shook out of his trance.

" This is no time for sleeping on the job! Okay. Strategy Time." The space around Michael seemed to freeze and everyone seemed still. "Odd could distract it while Ulrich uses his speed to surround it. Yumi could go behind it while it's encased and Odd could provide covering fire. The damage might not be a lot but it will diverge him from the real problem it will have. An all out assault. I can disable one leg right away with one Dragon Draw thanks to the data Jeremie gave us. Okay, let's do it." The time around Michael went back to normal.

"Ulrich! Surround it with a triangulate when I say! Odd, blast away on the rocks! Yumi get outside of the triangulated and try to take some shots at it! Aelita you might want to run away. When I say, we all strike with everything!" Michael gave his command and everyone agreed. Michael pulled his Katana out and pooled his energy into it.

"Dragon Draw!" Michael with incredible speed and power slashed across the creature and sure enough only one of legs fell off while the rest remained intact. "Now Ulrich!"

"Triangulate!" The three clones began to surround the creature and confuse him heavily. He couldn't worry about it too much as he began taking fire from above on a rock formation that Odd positioned himself in. The lasers hit the laser arrows, but Odd was going gung-ho and making sure that he fired to keep the creature on its toes. He began to fire at Odd who eventually had to jump off and got hit right in the chest.

"Odd, you just lost 20 life points! It's got a powerful laser!" Jeremie exclaimed.

"YAH!" Yumi threw her fans inside the triangulated to get to the creature. One fan hit while the other was deflected away. Michael was on the outside of the triangulated smiling.

"CALL IT!" Michael yelled out.

"TOP! BODY! LEGS!" Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi all called at the same time.

"NOW!" Michael yelled out. Ulrich's triangulate disappeared in an instant and the creature saw Yumi and Odd. Odd took his arrows and began firing until he ran out. Yumi threw her fans at the one leg and it got sliced off. Ulrich with his three clones in the air dropped down on top of the XANA symbol at the creature's head.

"Triple IMPACT!" The creature cried from all the damage. Michael threw his sword at the XANA symbol and it blew up. Ulrich fused back together.

"Nice job. You guys were slow on the reaction, though. You guys have a long way to go." The group slowly was adjusting to Michael's strategies. At first, it sounded insane, but they were able to find their bearings and adjust. They still had a long way to go before being perfect, though.

"Oh come on! We were good that time right?" Ulrich looked at the others.

"Jeremie? Was the timer on right? What did they get?" Michael smirked.

"Approximately four minutes, eight seconds, and fifty-six milliseconds," Jeremie replied.

"Despite that being a new monster, that was still one of the lowest times yet. We need to coordinate better." Michael stood there for a minute before laughing.

"Hey Jeremie, how about calling us some taxis?" Odd cried out.

"It's on the way!" Jeremie began typing on his computer for the vehicles.

"Later!" Michael began sprinting away and seeing Aelita on the way. He picked her up without breaking his stride.

"I am assuming since you are here, the creature was defeated?" Aelita had that oh so innocent smile.

"Come on you know the answer already." Michael grinned. Michael ran across the sector and the tower was close.

"How did they do to your standards?" Aelita asked.

"Honestly, they weren't bad. The movements are getting better, but I can still see a delay. They have a long way to go." Michael looked before Aelita started giggling. "What's so funny?! You are the one that told me to do this!" Ever since Michael had learned Shogi, his strategies were out of this world. He could read the gang like it was nothing and could see the next best move for them. Aelita suggested during one mission to have him try and formulate a plan. It was sloppy as all heck, but the gang liked it. Ever since then, Michael had been their general and Jeremie had been the eyes. Jeremie was at first against the idea, but he realized that Michael was a better strategy person and he was on the ground with them.

The two sat there bantering about other things before the rest of the gang caught up. This caused an argument of who would go first, and Michael let the two ladies go and then the three guys were virtualized. They went upstairs to the computer lab.

"If XANA is starting to create new monsters, it means that our troubles have only just begun guys." Jeremie was in his chair concerned.

"One thing is for sure Einstein, you need to reprogram our vehicles faster. Otherwise, we don't stand a chance against those tarantulas!" Odd had his hand in the claw motion.

"Your aunt what?" Yumi asked.

"Tarantulas, the new monsters. I like giving my enemies a name." Odd expressed.

"What worries me is that XANA has obviously found a way to increase his power." Michael cringed a little at the statement. Obviously, he didn't know for sure if he was the cause. But, that recent vision didn't help him.

"You think he is still evolving?" Ulrich asked.

"These past few days might have something to do with it." Michael brought himself into the conversation. "The last few days, I got no pulsations or no monsters. Perhaps XANA was pooling everything into the one monster he sent us." The gang looked and for the most part thought it was a fair assumption.

"That would make the most sense." Jeremie looked at his computer. Michael looked around and saw that the conversation was over.

"Well, I am going to enjoy my limited time here. I think I will go enjoy the weather before going back to Lyoko." Michael was going to leave when the group began to snicker. "What? Did I miss something?"

"Should we tell him?" Jeremie asked.

"Well, of course, we should! Why keep good news like that a secret?" Yumi told Jeremie.

"Okay, I'll bite… What's this news you have?" Michael for the first time in a while looking confused.

"Over the past few weeks, I've spent all my time developing the vehicles and trying to find an antivirus to free you two from XANA's grasp. And I've perfected a whole new program for detecting activated towers." Jeremie explained.

"A Super Scanner. Much more accurate than the old one." Odd putting his thought in.

"With instant detection which means…" Jeremie was interrupted.

"You don't have to stay on Lyoko all the time!" Aelita said with joy. Michael stood there shell-shocked.

"No way! Am I going live here on earth? That's amazing!" Michael said with joy. He gave Odd a high five, Ulrich a fist bump, Yumi a slight hug and Jeremie with a nod. He looked at Aelita who seemed to be interested in the ceiling and whistling. "You little sneak. You knew all along, didn't you? That's why you have been staying with Yumi hasn't it?" Michael looked at Aelita.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Aelita again having that innocent look.

"Come on, let's you two to the dorms. Aelita is already packed and she helped pack your stuff at the house already." Yumi said.

 **Kadic Academy.**

"And this is your room." Jim showing Aelita her room. Michael was behind with the bag that Aelita and Yumi packed for him. "It's not very big, but you'll like it here Ms. um..."

"Stones. Aelita Stones. Like the rock group." Aelita had the biggest smile on her face. "I'm Odd's cousin from Canada."

"So is this your brother?" Jim pointed towards Michael.

"No, I am a friend of Yumi. We used to have family that had gone way back and I have been staying with her." Michael explained.

"I see. Well, Aelita, breakfast starts at seven AM, and dinner's at seven PM. It's against the rules to be in your room between eight AM and four thirty PM. You can ask your friends Della-Robbia, Stern, and Belpois to fill you in on the rest of the rules. That is if they can remember them!" Jim exclaimed turning towards the three. Jim then turned to Michael and asked if he could remember all of it. He simply nodded at the gesture.

"Good. Now, if you'll follow me, I'll show you to your room." Jim walked out of Aelita's room and down the hall.

"So far so good." Michael sighed a little before following Jim.

"So exactly how did you meet Yumi?" Jim asked Michael.

"When her family visited Korea. We have had a lot of emails and letters towards each other. I heard that she moved to France and due to circumstances, I asked her if I could come here. I honestly am glad, though. It's really such a nice country."

"Well, I hope you enjoy your time here," Jim told Michael. "This is your room. You heard the explanation so hopefully, I don't have to do it again. You can unpack or you don't have to at all." Jim walked out of the room. The room itself was similar to Jeremie's bedroom. It was quite big having a nice amount of space. Michael decided to unpack his clothes and throw them in a drawer. He got out his Shogi books and laid them on a bookshelf nearby. He also felt something that he never felt before. He reached in and couldn't help but smile.

' _Those guys…'_ For a hidden surprise, the gang got him his very own Shogi board. Michael always played Yumi and her father whenever he went over, as well as online through the tower. He was happy to have his own. He set it down on the table. He heard a knock at the door and he told them to come in.

"I see you like the board they got you." Jeremy looked into the room.

"Yeah. It's nice to have people that would do so much for you." Michael began setting up the board.

"Well in a way, you did save yourself and Aelita." Jeremie looked disappointed. Michael walked over and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, I only did what you started. Besides given more time, I am sure that you would have figured it out. I lived in Lyoko for who knows how long. If not for you Aelita and I wouldn't even be here." Jeremie had that smile and Michael nodded.

"Come on. Let's get to the others, they are preparing for the upcoming field trip." Jeremie and Michael left the room and made it to the main courtyard. Michael saw Odd handling something in his bag.

"Odd, what is that?" Michael pointed to the bag as he and Jeremie went up to him.

"Oh, this is my dog. His name is Kiwi." Odd showed Kiwi to Michael and he couldn't help but smile. The dog named Kiwi settled down once he saw Michael. "Well, would you look at that? I think he likes you." Michael patted the dog on the head and it was super calm and happy.

"Hey, Aelita! Is everything okay? Are you all settled in?"

"Yes I am and I love my new room. How about you Michael?" Aelita asked.

"It's a nice size. Thanks again by the way for the board." Michael looked to see that Aelita had a little blush.

"It's not a problem. Hey, what's the field trip everyone is talking about?" Aelita looked to the group.

"We are going to be making a biodiversity scrapbook. Mrs. Hertz wants us to draw plants and flowers. That kind of thing. You, me and Michael will be together."

"Sounds good." Aelita looked to see that Ulrich wasn't to be found. He then was seen walking to the group with his camera.

"Hey, you guys ready to go?" Ulrich with his camera and looking through the film.

"Aren't you going with Yumi?" Odd looked curious.

"She has her own partner already. Besides, you might actually get a good grade with me here." The entire group laughed while Odd had his little moment. Michael was glad to see whatever was bothering him about Yumi was over now.

"Come on, let's get going." Jeremie and the others followed the class. Jeremie and Aelita began talking about plants while Michael listened in from time to time. It's not like he was ignoring them, but it was rather that he enjoyed nature more than talking about it. They eventually found a nice spot and settled down. Michael having no real knowledge of the art, began just sketching what he saw in front of him. He moved his pencil around and was trying his best to draw the daisies in front of him.

"Wow, I didn't know you were an artist." Aelita now looking at Michael's drawing. She thought that it was basically a carbon copy of the one in front of them.

"I don't think it's that good." Michael ripping the page out of the notebook and about to crumble it when Aelita stopped him and showed Jeremie.

"Wow! That's amazing Michael! It's basically the same thing." Jeremie exclaimed. Michael simply scratched his head and the group began moving through the woods again being done with their business.

"Are you sure there aren't monsters in these woods?" Aelita now trailing behind Michael and Jeremie.

"There aren't any monsters in these woods. Those only exist in fairy tales or in horror films: The kind that Odd likes." Jeremie said.

"You don't like horror films?" Aelita now curious.

"I find them extremely inaccurate. Anyways I don't have time for all of that, I have plenty to deal with XANA." Jeremie began to check his bag and find that his computer was missing. He began panicking when Michael slugged his arm.

"Don't worry about it. Just go get it then. Aelita and I will see more of the woods while you get your laptop." Jeremie nodded and it was just the two. They began to walk around a little before they started hearing the rustling of leaves. Aelita was beginning to get extremely nervous and Michael could tell.

"Hey." Michael put a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright. Nothing is going to hurt you here. Remember what Jeremie said? Monsters don't exist here." Aelita calmed down from the statement but her face wasn't convinced. Little ways down they both heard the cry of some animal.

"Aelita." Michael tried again to calm her down. "It's okay. Come on I am your wolf right?" Michael jokingly said. That cheered Aelita up and she seemed calm again.

THUMP!

"AGH!" Michael gripped his head hard. His head felt like a baseball bat just broke his skull open. He fell on both knees.

"Michael!" Aelita's voice barely reached him as he began seeing visions again.

 **'Hey! What happened to welcome back huh?'**

' **Well, let's just say that this time the wolf has become the prey.'**

Michael began gripping his head harder and crying in pain.

"Michael! Michael! If this is a joke it isn't funny!" Aelita tried her best to wake him up.

' **Good night Wolf!'**

 **'Night Strawberry head.'**

* * *

Odd and Ulrich got the call from Jeremie to find Aelita and Michael, who were left on the red trail.

"Do you have any idea where they could be?" Odd asked while running along the trail.

"There! Michael!" Ulrich pointed to Michael who's face was flat on the ground. They went over to him to see if he was okay. "Michael? Michael!" Michael's face began to twitch and he had woken up.

"What?" Michael's voice was a bit groggy. "What's going on? What are you two doing here?"

"XANA's attacking." That made Michael get out of whatever trance he was in. "We were here to get you and Aelita. Any idea where she went?"

"No… All I remember was some strange visions and then pouf!" Michael honestly tried to remember but had a lot of trouble. He then saw Kiwi begin to sniff him. "What's he doing Odd?"

"He is trying to get a scent from you. It looks like he found one!" Odd yelled as they were chasing Kiwi down the paths. They saw Yumi along they way and explained the situation to her. They ended up finding an abandoned house and decided to check it out.

They went through the front and Michael couldn't help but feeling they were being watched. As they went in through the front door, Michael began to stir.

THUMP!

"Agh!" Michael's head began to scream in pain. In Michael's head, he began to hear a medley of twinkle twinkle little star.

"Michael!" The group all looked at his face and could see how much pain he was going through. All of a sudden the door slammed shut. Before they could react Michael pushed the three away from the approaching cabinet.  
CRASH!

"MICHAEL!" The three cried out. As the smoke cleared away they saw their friend lying on the ground holding his shoulder.

"Damn… My shoulder!" Michael gripped his shoulder and tried to move without it. Throughout the house, they dodged knives, plates and all sorts of things. They went to the basement and saw that Aelita was lying down in some room. Michael stood outside gripping his shoulder as the group went in for Aelita. When she came conscious she saw Michael and then Ulrich.

"Ulrich! It's a trap! XANA is going to-" The thought was never finished as the door quickly began to shut. Odd being on the outside kept it open for them with his entire body. Michael ran over and tried to offer assistance but his shoulder wouldn't let him. Aelita was able to crawl out, but Yumi and Ulrich were trapped as the door pushed Odd out of the way.

"You will be cooked alive if we don't get you out!" Odd and Aelita tried the door while Yumi and Ulrich also tried.

"It's no use you guys!" The group looked towards Michael. "That door will not move an inch. The best option we have right now is to get to Lyoko and deactivate the tower." Everyone looked shocked but Yumi and Ulrich agreed.

"He is right! You guys get to the tower and deactivate the tower." Ulrich yelled from the room as it began to rise in temperature. The group of Odd, Aelita, and Michael began running before reaching a door that wouldn't open. They began to turn around when they saw another cabinet.

 _'You have got to be kidding me!'_ Michael got out of the way and Odd moved Aelita as Odd jumped over the cabinet and it collided with the door. On the other side, Kiwi was standing there as happy as could be.

Outside there wasn't much there. There were a door and some remnants of a wood log. Out of the corner of Michael's eye, he saw a blade that looked dull but he ignored it for the time being.

THUMP!

Michael and Aelita both saw the doorway leading down towards the sewers. However, Aelita spoke her vision first.

"Odd! Michael! I think this pathway leads to the sewers!" Aelita exclaimed pointing at it.

"This is no time for jokes Aelita!" Odd seriously questioning her. Michael was calm and tried his best to convince him otherwise.

"Trust her Odd. What's the harm in checking?" Michael already knew, but he had a completely different thought. For now, it was time to save Ulrich and Yumi from getting heat stroke.

The gang made it to the laboratory and explained where Yumi and Ulrich were. They made their way to the scanners. Michael's shoulder was still hurting, but he thought Lyoko would make it better.

"Transfer Aelita! Transfer Odd! Transfer Michael!"

"Scanner Aelita! Scanner Odd! Scanner Michael!"

"Virtualization!"

The three were back once again in the ice sector. **(Author's Note: Not to sound rude or anything, but TWO episodes with the ice sector in a row? With Odd, Michael, and Aelita again? Granted that Ulrich and Yumi aren't helping this time. No no no we are changing this.)**

The three now landed in the mountain sector. **(Why? Because it's lonely.)**

"Ah! Mountain sector!" Michael moved his shoulder and it still felt stiff, but much better now.

"I don't know… I think considering the condition that Ulrich and Yumi are in, we should be in the ice sector." For some reason, the ground around Odd began shaking. "Or… YAY! Mountain sector!" That stopped the shaking. Jeremie produced Aelita and Odd two vehicles.

"Aelita, the overwing is for you."

"Our taxis are waiting for us. Let's go." Odd jumped on his overboard while Aelita jumped on the overwing. Michael simply sprinted across the sector with his silver aura.

"Tower dead ahead." Odd pointed to the tower.

"Be careful! You got two Tarantulas and a crab guarding it!" Jeremie saw on his screen.

The tower was located on a flat plain almost. It had very few rocks and a lot of open space. They took cover around 30 ft before stopping.

"I will never be able to take on two those horrors! Add the Crab and it's a seafood mess!" Odd complaining.

"Maybe I can lure away one of them." Aelita had that guilty and self-confident look in her eyes. Michael couldn't help himself and started to laugh.

"Oh man, I got to hear this one." Michael quickly listened to Aelita's plan.

"Aelita? What do you plan on doing?" You could feel Jeremie's concern through his voice.

"She is going to steal the show." Michael and Odd said at the same time.

Aelita began her approach on the monsters on her overwing as they were preparing to fire.

"Well, my little monster friends…" Aelita waved to them. "Did you miss me?" Aelita gave a wink and the Tarantulas communicated. The Crab and one Tarantula followed while one stayed behind. As they were chasing Aelita they began opening fire on her vehicle. Aelita tried her best to dodge but ended up getting blasted by a Crab laser. She was on foot and began to move across the sector. She passed by two rocks and so did the creatures until they reached the edge of the sector. Aelita began backing away as the Tarantula and the Crab took aim.

"You-who!" Odd came from below the sector. "Surprise!" Odd opened fire on the Tarantula and eventually couldn't take all the damage and blew up. The Crab now looking at Odd began charging it's laser.

"That's not good… That's not good at all…" The crab looked behind to see a full charged wind blast hit him directly and knocking him off into the digital sea. "You should really watch your back next time. I was just behind those two rocks."

"Looks like they aren't that invincible." Odd began checking his ammo and realized he was out. "Uh-oh. Jeremie, I am all out of ammo."

"Okay I will reload you, but it's going to take some time." Jeremie began typing for the reloading process. Michael looked at Odd and Aelita.

"With one left, I could handle it on my own. But I want to see how you two would attack this." Odd and Aelita grinned. He was testing them.

"Okay. Why don't I keep it distracted while I am getting reloaded?" Odd told Aelita. "I will let you know when I am good to go."

"Gotcha." Odd took off on the board. Michael offered his back to Aelita.

"Just because I am not helping you, doesn't mean you have to run all on your own." Aelita simply shook her head and they began to take off.

Odd circled the tower and was waiting patiently to be reloaded. He saw Aelita and Michael running and hiding behind a rock formation.

"Done! You are fully loaded!"

"Aelita! Now!" Odd began his descent towards the tarantula. Aelita then popped out and used her creativity song to trap the tarantula. She formed a rock formation around it leaving only the roof open area. The tarantula's legs were trapped and Odd unloaded everything he had. It eventually was destroyed as well.

"Not bad. Not bad at all. I am impressed with your creativity Aelita. Although Odd's aim could use some work." Michael laughed a little. Aelita entered the tower and they were engulfed in a white light.

"Michael? Are you sure that you were the one who drew this? You didn't steal a painting or copy from something right?" Mrs. Hertz was in shock. After seeing Michael's drawings, she couldn't help but be in disbelief. The pictures were perfect images of all the flowers and plants.

"Yes, ma'am. I am sure that these are my drawings." Michael simply couldn't believe that his teacher was in shock from it all. After all, it was something that he just decided to sketch.

"Well then, a 100 for you and your group. Excellent job." With that, Michael walked away and heard Sissi make some comment about him being another Einstein. It was ignored as he went over to his group of friends. They were talking about Ulrich and Yumi as well as the drawings they got done.

"I went to check out that house the Hermitage, it's gone back to being a normal house. Empty but normal." Jeremie said.

"It's so weird, all those visions I had there." Aelita now wondering what exactly happened.

"Not to mention that underground passage that you knew about." Odd inquired.

"It's as if I had seen that house before." Aelita now saying. Aelita though didn't know that a silver-haired figure was thinking the same thing.

"How is your shoulder doing Michael?" Yumi asking him. He moved it around to show that it was alright.

"It's alright. Just a bit stiff. Nothing a bit of exercise can't do."

"Speaking of which, you were on the ground when we last saw you, Michael. What happened out there?" Ulrich looking at him. Michael felt all eyes on him and simply sighed.

"Sorry. I guess I have been just not getting a lot of rest. Before I knew it I was on the ground. That's why you found me like that. It must have been just dreams." Michael knew that he was lying, but honestly, he wasn't sure about anything that had just happened.

"Come on guys, it's only his first day and earth and a lot has happened." Aelita now trying to appease to the group. "Let's give him a rest."

The gang now agreeing with Aelita let the topic drop. For now anyways… Michael and Aelita both got phones and then headed back to their respective dorms.

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Author's Note: So it was a little different than the Cannon. By the way, there is signfigance here if anyone saw it, to the title. The next chapter will have it as well. Till then!


	8. Chapter 7: Odd's Trail and Sector Five

Author's Note: Hello everyone! I hope that this is coming at a good time for you guys. I have a new beta reader now! His name is Theboblinator. He is now helping with future chapters. I hope that he continues to support my work and helps me with the writting of this story. This chapter is by far the longest so hope you enjoy!

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Chapter 7: Odd's Trial and Sector Five

 **Two days later...**

After the whole incident with Michael's and Aelita's visions, the gang was doing alright. Classes were boring as always, lunch tasted like lunch, and fighting XANA… Well, was like fighting XANA. Aelita though went to Michael's room and knocked on the door.

"It's open!" Michael yelled out from the room. Aelita opened the door to see that Michael had done a little decorating with the room. His walls were covered with some boxing stars, cool bands, and a boxing tournament flyer. He also had a pair of boxing gloves on a chair. Further, in the room, he had a drawing he was making and typing on his new computer. His Shogi board had a King in checkmate and a ton of pieces removed.

"Wow, you worked fast," Aelita said, amazed at how quickly his room transformed.

"It's all thanks to Jim really. Apparently, he had some boxing gloves he never used and gave them to me. The posters were from him as well. The band posters were from Odd and Ulrich, and Jeremie just came by to give me his old computer. He figured I could help him with some programming." Michael explained to Aelita. He was sitting at his desk, now facing his chair towards Aelita.

"Oh! What's this?" Aelita began to reach for a drawing on the table that Michael was making when Michael reached over and snatched it.

"It's a secret! You can't see it until I finish it!" Michael said like a child with a toy. Aelita and Michael both laughed at the voice that he made.

"Michael… Are you okay?" Aelita asked in a sad tone. Michael's mood quickly changed as well. He knew what she was asking about.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. I know that you figured it out." Aelita smiled a little because she knew it was a compliment in a way. "These visions… They feel so real. It confuses me as well. I can't explain it. Have you had any since then?" Michael looked to Aelita.

"No, I haven't. How many have you had since that Guardian?" Aelita asked him, now curious.

"A few times. I didn't tell anyone because I knew if I did, they would think I was crazy." Michael said, remembering that his potential parents could have been killed.

"Well, I wouldn't have." Aelita smiled and sat on Michael's bed.

"Of course you wouldn't have. After all, you were on Lyoko with me. You know me in almost every sense." Michael laughed a little. "Let's just keep this between you and me, for now, okay? I wouldn't want the others to worry about another issue. With XANA we have enough on our plate already."

"Yeah, I think that would be best." Aelita began to walk out of the room when Michael's voice stopped her.

"You know if you need to talk, I am here for you. Just like always." Michael made sure to tell her. He saw the small smile on her face as she closed the door behind her.

"Crap! I need to go!" Michael looked at the clock to see that it was that time again. He began running out of his room and down the hall. He saw a figure appear out of the room he was about to pass, and he had to skid to a halt to avoid colliding with said person.

"Sorry! I'm in a rush... Odd?" Michael's tunnel vision vanished as he saw the person he almost ran into was Odd.

"Yeah Michael. It's Odd. What are you doing running in the hall like that? Did XANA attack or something?" Odd asked.

"No, it's not that, ha-ha." Michael laughed a little. "Good seeing you Odd, I need to go!" Before Odd could even ask his question, Michael ran off.

 _'Now where could he be going in such a rush? He couldn't have a girlfriend could he?!'_ Odd now pictured Michael with a girlfriend and to be frank, it wasn't actually unusual to see. Michael had that physique and the looks to do it. Not wanting to be outdone, Odd begins to follow Michael.

When Odd discovers that Michael is heading to the forest he wonders what exactly he's doing. He's even more curious when Michael goes into the sewer that leads to the factory.

 _'Did Michael break the Golden Rule and tell his girlfriend about our factory? About XANA?!'_ Odd began to freak out before shaking his head and making his way down to the sewers. Keeping a safe distance he made it to the front entrance of the factory undetected.

Odd went through the alternative entrance and made his way above the computer lab. He saw that Michael was sitting in the computer chair communicating with someone.

"Alright then, you ready to go? Okay, I'm starting the virtualization process." Michael began typing on the computer.

"Transfer, Scanner, Virtualization!" Michael read out. "Good. Looks like it worked. How do you feel?"

"Ah HA!" Odd cried out and pointed towards Michael in his chair. Michael jumped in surprise at the sudden shout.

"Odd? What are you doing here?" Michael looked so surprised it looked like he had seen a ghost.

"Oh, nothing! Just catching you and your girlfriend! I bet you transferred her to Lyoko just now huh?!" Odd now accusing Michael.

"What?! No way!" Michael blushed with embarrassment. "Odd! It's not what you think!"

"Uh-huh! Wait till Jeremie and the others here about this!" Odd pulled out his phone and began typing Jeremie's number.

"Hey, Odd! Knock it off!" Michael got out of his seat and knocked the phone out of Odd's hands.

"Oh?! So that's how it's going to be! Fine then! I can duke it out!" Odd began getting in his fighting stance. He threw a punch a Michael who avoided it.

"Odd! Stop it! Someone could really get hurt!" Michael continued to block Odd's punches.

"No way! You are endangering the group! The only one that's going to get hurt is you! Michael girlfriend stealer!" Odd hit Michael in the stomach, but due to his physique he still stood up.

"How many times do I have to tell you it's not like that?!" Michael tripped Odd so he fell to the ground, and then went over to the computer and brought it around for Odd to see. "Look for yourself Odd!" Odd went over to the computer to see that indeed, it was no stranger on Lyoko.

"ULRICH!?" Odd was taken back by the whole thing. He had no idea that it was indeed Ulrich that was on Lyoko. It completely threw everything he thought out the window.

"Yeah. Come on, let's go the scanner room. I already set up a delayed virtualization." Michael opened the latch for the ladder leading to the scanner room. Odd still shocked took a few seconds before following him.

 **Lyoko Desert Sector**

Michael and Odd landed in the desert sector and made their way to the heavy rock formation.

"Yo! Looks like you were half right Ulrich!" Michael called out to his partner in crime. Ulrich stopped sprinting and saw that the purple cat figure was standing next to him. He jumped off the rocks and headed towards them.

"Ulrich? What exactly are you doing here buddy?" Odd wondered.

"Well, I'm trying to develop a new technique. Michael here is helping me do just that." Ulrich pointed to Michael.

"He was so adamant about getting one I couldn't help but feel bad for the guy." Michael laughing a little because he really didn't want it at first. "I can't believe that you knew Odd would find out. Granted, he thought that it was something else, but he did follow me hereafter figuring out something was up." He told Ulrich.

"Hey, with a roommate like him, nothing is impossible. Although I guess you owe me dessert from Monday to Wednesday if he didn't guess the real reason you were coming out here." Ulrich admits with a shrug, though he's still smirking smugly. Michael grumbled away and said something about being more sneaky next time.

"So you've been training then?" Odd said, now understanding why sometimes Ulrich seemed quieter and exhausted in the recent days.

"It's only been for a few days and he said that I'm kicking his butt. But, to be fair I spent almost all the time on Lyoko developing my new technique and developing the program for materialization. It's going to take you a long time Ulrich. So just be patient with it." Michael explained to him. Ulrich nodded while Odd seemed angry for some reason.

"That's not fair!" Odd exclaimed as he pointed a finger towards Michael.

"EH? What's not fair?" Michael asks in surprise and confusion.

"You're here with Ulrich and he's going to get ahead of the rest of us! That's not fair! I want a new technique too! That way I don't fall behind Ulrich!" Odd shouting like a child. Michael laughed a little.

"Odd, I only taught this to Ulrich because he came to me. Of course, if everyone wanted a new technique then I could offer some advice. But, it's only the advice I'm giving. Ulrich has to figure out the rest on his own. I'm not making these techniques for you guys and I will not be the ones using it. That's why I'm simply observing Ulrich." Michael explained. "You guys have lives to live out and I am not going to stop that. I'm having Ulrich only do this a few times a week and then helping him study for whatever exams he needs help with. After that, we go back to training and then he gets some rest. That's why these last few days he's been like that."

"Honestly, it's a good system. I actually feel ready for that Biology test tomorrow. I just have to relate some things back to Lyoko and I'll remember the solutions better." Ulrich explained. He was really grateful for Michael's workout plan. He thought at first it would only be working on his new technique. But when Michael brought the idea of studying, Ulrich couldn't be happier.

"Ew! Studying! I don't want to do that!" Odd stuck out his tongue in disgust.

"Here, how about we make a deal: I'll give you a new technique if you promise to study for at least one hour. After that, you can train all you want. Deal?" Michael held his hand out. Odd looked skeptical at first, but the idea that he only needed to study for one hour wasn't too bad. Besides, Ulrich made it sound at least better than the way that Mrs. Hertz would teach a science class.

"Oh, okay." Odd shook Michael's hand. Ulrich was actually happy that his friend accepted. Now maybe, just maybe, his friend wouldn't bother him during the time he studies.

"Great. Ulrich, you are going to continue training here for another half an hour. Now that Odd is here, we can have a little sparring match between you two for a change." Michael explained. Whenever Ulrich would finish his training, he would usually spar against Michael. The difference in skills, however, was very apparent. Michael had almost too many different ways that he could fight. From anything like out speeding Ulrich and fighting with just his Katana, to using only his fists. As he got ready to walk away with Odd, he threw his sword at Ulrich, who deflected it in the air. However, Michael sent a wind blast to redirect the sword and make it hit Ulrich. The brunet teen grumbled as he tossed the sword back at Michael, before taking off in another burst of speed to continue his training.

As he did that, Odd and Michael made their way into the tower and dove to another sector. When they came out of the tower, they were in the forest sector. They traveled to a place where a lot of trees were surrounding a lake.

"This will be your training spot. I will give you the coordinates and how to transfer yourself to Lyoko later. Let's see..." Michael held his hand on his head. "For you, I think that it would be good for you learned how to make a shield."

"A shield?" Odd asked in curiosity.

"Yeah. Both Ulrich and Yumi have a way off deflecting lasers, but you don't. You have to rely on your speed and aerobatics to always get you out of pinches. You use your speed for the wrong reasons. That's why I think it would be good if you could develop a shield." Michael explained. Even to Odd, it made a lot of sense.

"Okay... So what do I do?" Odd now wondering why they were in the forest sector.

"In order to obtain this shield, you are going to concentrate your energy as an outward force. You need to force it to make a little shield around your body. But, you need to be sure that you don't use too much energy either. It's about finding that balance. That's why I brought you here. You are going to try and focus over there on the lake." Odd looked questioningly at Michael, but he complied.

 **CONCENTRATION (Again this will be important later).**

The will to always keep focused on the task at hand. Michael knew that Odd lacked it. But not on purpose. Odd was a unique case. In truth, when it came to Lyoko matters, Odd was one of the best. Almost nothing fazed him and he could do a lot of things. But he didn't put his effort into anything else. He knew that Odd had hidden potential. He just needed to concentrate and focus only on moving forward.

"You are going to try your best to concentrate all the energy into your body. It's going to look something like this." Michael concentrated and before long his fist had the aura in it. "If you break your concentration, then the aura will go away." The aura around Michael's fist suddenly disappeared. "If it's not concentrated enough then it will fade away and the shield will be broken." Michael concentrated his aura and made a windblast, Odd watching the pressurized wind shoot across the clearing, only to find that it didn't even reach the tree his friend had been aiming for. "But... When concentrated enough, and you put the right amount of energy into it..." Michael grunted with a full powered windblast and fired at the tree, leaving a big hole in it, but not big enough to make the tree actually fall over. "It will look something like that."

Odd was impressed by it all. He couldn't believe the explanation and he couldn't imagine the amount of work that went into it. He was now determined to get his shield to work.

"Okay! Here I go!" Odd cried out.

 **A few days later...**

 **Aelita's dream space...**

Aelita was running through the woods as Mister Puck. She quickly saw that several wolves were chasing her and began to run away. She made her way to where a wolf was waiting for her on a rock formation. She began to turn around but saw that the pack of wolfs were standing there, blocking her way. The only option was to make an alternative turn. She ran into a tree hole to where she thought she would be safe.

As she hid in the tree hole, she saw the other wolves beginning a search for her. When one wolf appeared in the tree hole Aelita began to get very scared. But, before the wolf could do anything it was attacked. There was a rustle outside before it quickly calmed down. It was quiet... And then a silver wolf appeared in the tree hole.

However, unlike the other wolfs this one didn't have those piercing eyes. Instead, they were quite warm, and it gave Aelita some hope. Aelita walked up to the silver wolf and began to pet it on its head. The wolf responded warmly, before offering her a ride on its back. Aelita agreed and they rode off away from the other wolves.

 **Dream over...**

Aelita woke up from that particular dream happy. Recently, she had been getting a lot of those dreams lately, but a common thing she saw was the silver wolf. She had no idea why or what significance it had at all. Never the less, she got her shower gear and began to head for the girl's showers.

The line for the girl's showers was extremely long for some reason. When Sissi came out of the showers, she saw a helpless Miss Einstein and decided to play around with her.

"Poor thing! You'll be waiting here for hours! Why not go upstairs!? There isn't a girl in sight!" Sissi exclaimed and technically, she wasn't wrong… Aelita was thankful for Sissi's advice and decided to go upstairs. She entered the showers before seeing Odd and Ulrich showering. They quickly pushed her out of the room so all three were in the hallways.

"The girl's showers are downstairs Aelita!" Odd exclaimed.

"Aelita Stones!" Jim coming down the hallway with his hands to his hips. "What do you think that you are doing here?"

"Please go easy on her Jim. She's new here." Ulrich tried to reason with his Gym teacher.

"Right well... New or not a young lady has no business in the boy's showers." Jim exclaimed, now shouting.

"But I thought that-" Aelita didn't finish her thought, though.

"Now, now. Please, Jim, calm down." Michael said, now coming out of the showers with his towel just above his six pack. The scar was also very apparent and Aelita looked shocked at the scar.

"Michael!" Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita yelled. They didn't even see him in the showers.

"Michael! What do you mean by this?!" Jim now very confused as Michael put his hand through his silver hair.

"Please try and understand Jim. With the girl's line, Aelita thought that she would be clever and find different showers. I am not surprised since Sissi has been rumored to take around an hour with her showers. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to explain the circumstances of the boys and girls showers. It's, in fact, all my fault." Michael bowed to Jim in a respectful manner. He noticed that Sissi, Herb, and Nicholas all standing off to the side.

"Michael-" Odd and Ulrich tried to get him out of this jam. Aelita was too shocked to say anything. Michael simply shook his head.

"I take all responsibilities for Aelita's actions today. I believe Mr. Delmas will want to see me yes?" Michael sighing heavily. "I will go get changed Jim, so that way I can go in a fashionable manner."

Jim looked shell shocked and coughed to get himself out of the trance. "No, that will not be necessary. But next time, tell your friend about the proper rules!" Jim looked so flustered that his face was red. He stormed off the other way either confused or angry. Michael smiled and fist bumped both Ulrich and Odd. But couldn't talk because of a certain snake.

"Well, well! It looks like your little boyfriend comes to save the day!" Sissi shouted. In response to her statement, the two shared a glance, before both gave Sissi a flat look.

"Actually, I'd say we're more like brother and sister. Right, Strawberry Head?" Michael asked, getting a nod from Aelita.

"Of course Wolf." She replied with a smile. Their response made Sissi frown since her statement didn't have the effect she'd hoped it would.

"Sissi, we're so sick of your jokes so just stop it okay? Can't you give Aelita a break? You knew that she would believe you." Ulrich said, trying to reason with her.

"What can I say Ulrich dear? She's going to have to adapt. It's a jungle out there." Sissi replied with a smug smile, which dropped off her face at Michael's next words.

"I'll say! I'm looking at a few monkeys right about now!" Michael shouted out. The gang laughed while Sissi and her crew stormed away from them.

"That was a nice one, Michael!" Odd gave Michael a high five, before him and Ulrich went back into the showers. Aelita suddenly felt stupid. A few seconds later, she felt a hand on her shoulder, making her jump a bit.

"Hey princess, calm down. Are you okay?" Michael asked her with a frown.

"Thank you, Michael." Aelita went in for a hug, but Michael held a hand up. "I don't want to get you wet when you haven't showered yet. Why don't you come to my room after your shower? I've got something for you anyways."

After having a good shower, Aelita put on her usual attire and went upstairs to Michael's room. She knocked on it and he called that it was open. Aelita walked in to see that Michael was at his computer.

"So what is it that you got for me?" Aelita asked curiously.

"I have this thing I'm working on. I want you to check it out. Oh and don't tell anyone else." Aelita went over to Michael's screen and saw that it had something to do with Lyoko.

"This is-!" Aelita couldn't believe that Michael was working on something like this.

"Yeah, a new area. Very small and complex, but it's something that I think that can work. I am surprised that no one has touched it yet."

"It looks great! The amount of detail and the area all looks good!" Michael was proud as could be and leaned back in his chair. Aelita noticed that there were some black circles around his eyes.

"Michael?" Aelita asked and Michael simply nodded. "How long have you been working on this?"

"Oh? On this? Since maybe last Friday." Michael replied. Aelita began to realize something.

"And how long?" Aelita asked, placing her hands on her hips. _'He couldn't have...'_ Michael began to seem nervous.

"Well... what is today?" Michael looked to see that it was Friday on his calendar. He knew what was about to happen but nervously said it anyways. "Since... Then?" Michael got a head start and ran out the room before Aelita went chasing after him.

"YOU! MICHAEL GET BACK HERE!" Aelita couldn't believe him!

"NO WAY STRAWBERRY HEAD!" Michael knew that this would happen. But he enjoyed it all the same.

Classes were pretty boring and Aelita noticed Michael sleeping through them all. However, he seemed to have that magical ability to answer the teacher's question whenever he was called on. It made the class laugh and the teacher stare at him in a mixture of disappointment and confusion. For French class, the Madame (Teacher) kept on asking Michael for all the different verbs and even geography questions. Without even lifting his head, Michael pulled out a laser pointer and pointed to all the different areas and wrote out the verbs. She even expanded it to around the world and Michael pointed them all out with ease.

"You are beyond ridiculous!" Aelita came out of French class laughing.

"Oh come on! She should have stopped after I told her that Chicago was the capital of Illinois or when I told her that Arkansas' capital was Little Rock! She's a teacher!" Michael tried to justify his actions.

"Hey, at least we don't have a ton of homework thanks to your little stunt," Ulrich said, coming out of the class still laughing.

The group got together in the main courtyard and were bantering about some topics. Odd was being quite for some reason and a certain silver haired person knew exactly why.

"Wow, guys look at this!" Odd said, now looking at their last reading quiz. The group looked and all but two people were shocked.

"A 90?! That's amazing!" Yumi proclaimed.

"Odd, are you a clone right now?" Jeremie asked, shocked that Odd of all people would get a good grade. French wasn't a strong point for Odd. In fact a few weeks ago, he was barely passing.

"No? Why would you say that?" Odd now having his cocky grin. After the training session the other day, Michael and Ulrich were on the factory floor studying. Odd was hesitant at first, but he knew a deal was a deal. Michael brought his French textbook out and gave it to Odd. At first, he wasn't interested so Michael asked what Odd liked. He said that he liked Italian and he could speak it fluently. That shocked Ulrich and Michael, but it gave Michael an idea.

Hours later Odd had found French very interesting. Michael knew that the languages were similar, so Odd, able to speak Italian fluently, would have no problem with the language at all.

Jeremie brought up a point about Franz Hopper. He was, according to Jeremie, the one who owned the Hermitage. It got Aelita interested since that's where her nightmares had obviously started.

"After History class, why don't we go to the Kadic Academy archives?" Jeremie suggested.

"I'll go with you," Aelita said, now interested in finding the answers she was seeking.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Jeremie said, shocking Aelita at the fact that he was telling her she couldn't go.

"You already got trouble in the showers," Jeremie said, which made Aelita feel guilty about that one. "If Jim catches you again who knows what would happen." The blond continued. A few seconds later, Michael pulled Jeremie out of Aelita's hearing distance.

"Hey." Michael now putting a hand on Jeremie's shoulder. "That wasn't cool man. I took care of the issue and I got the blame. Look at Aelita, can't you see how miserable you just made her?" Jeremie looked at Aelita and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Yumi, Odd and Ulrich, on the other hand, realized just how sad she was. Jeremie shook Michael's hand off his shoulder.

"I don't see a problem. We'll meet you guys in the cafeteria." Jeremie took off with Odd and Ulrich.

Aelita felt so depressed that she felt like she could curl up in a ball and cry. She knew that Jeremie was right, and to make matters worse, Michael had to cover for her mistakes. "Hey don't worry about this morning okay?" Michael came up to Yumi and Aelita.

"'I'll say. How'd you manage to convince Jim of all people to let you off the hook?" Yumi asked still shocked after what Ulrich and Odd told her.

"I just used a bit of Psychology and just plain respect. I think he was taken by surprise. Plus, he isn't so bad." Michael had caught Jim a few times on the track when he would go for his morning run. Usually, you weren't allowed on the track that early, but it wasn't against the rules if a staff member was there. They wouldn't say much, but they both trained and helped with stretches from time to time.

"I can't get used to living here," Aelita said, and Michael and Yumi were taken aback by the statement. "I had another nightmare." She confessed. Michael's eyes narrowed at that.

"Hey don't worry about it," Michael said. "Everything is going to be fine. After all, I've made it here, right?" Aelita smiled a little at Michael's reassurance.

"I'll see you, ladies, later, I actually need to take care of something." Michael took off running.

Aelita's afternoon was terrible, to say the least. She hadn't seen any of the gang and the only one she saw was Yumi with William. She thought that Jeremie and the others may show up, but they ended up not coming. Michael was nowhere to be seen, so Aelita felt all alone. Sissi's words didn't help her as she began running towards the factory.

Jeremie and the others were checking out the Heritage to find more information about a Mister Franz Hopper. They ended up finding a few books, but other than that not a lot of information on the matter. The only good part was a book on the Romans Vs The Carthaginians.

Meanwhile, Michael was at the factory working on installing his new idea in the supercomputer. He had spent almost an entire week working on the new area. He hoped that it would work, otherwise his effort would have been for naught.

"Crap! Is it already that time? Shoot! I completely missed Lunch!" Michael said, looking at the screen. He was so close to finishing it, but he decided to leave the program on the computer for now. He saved his project and was heading for the elevator when the door slid open.

"Michael?" Aelita shocked that he was here of all places. "What are you doing here?"

"Didn't I tell you? I said that I was off to do something. I would have told you, but Yumi was there and I didn't want to let her know... Hey, you okay?" Michael asked, noticing Aelita's slightly red eyes. Aelita, having her stubbornness, didn't say anything in response to his question.

Michael came face to face with Aelita and decided to hug her. Aelita, not being able to control her emotions anymore, cried into Michael's shoulder. It had been so painful for her to not have anyone around her. And Michael understood that. He knew that his friends meant no harm, but they had to understand Aelita felt a certain way towards Earth. Granted, Michael wasn't perfect either, but he was just confident that everything would work out.

"There you go, are you feeling better now?" He asked, and Aelita nodded in response. "What's going on? Why were you crying?" Michael calmly asked her.

"I... Things here aren't the same as they were on Lyoko." Aelita said, calming down from before. "Everything seems so scary and I don't like it one bit."

"Yeah, it is pretty scary out there. But, you have to admit, being here is pretty awesome. Don't you remember our promise? You promised me that you would live your life out for the both of us." Michael said, giving her a smile.

"How could I forget? Stupid." Aelita said, giggling to herself. Michael was thankful that she was back to her normal self. "Hey, Michael? Can we go to Lyoko?" Now, Michael had a very difficult choice to make. On the one hand, it would make Aelita very happy if they went to Lyoko. On the other hand, it would be bad mainly because of the gang. But, at this point, Michael knew that Aelita's sanity and clarity came first.

"Alright, let's go. Only for a little bit, though." Michael went over the supercomputer and set a timer for one hour. He figured that she would need a while before she could come to terms with earth. He set up the virtualization process and the two went to the scanner room.

At the school, Jeremie and the others realized that Aelita and Michael were missing. After Sissi made a comment about Aelita going back home to Canada, they quickly bolted out of class and made their way to the factory. At the pool, Yumi saw the message and quickly made her way out of the pool.

"We always used to run around all the sectors huh?" Michael asked, reminiscing to Aelita about the times they spent here.

"You would always beat me. Except, for that one time-"

"Hey! That wasn't fair! You cheated big time! You used your creativity and made a giant rock wall! Granted I got through it thanks to these guns!" Michael jokingly pointed to his arms. "But still! That doesn't count."

"Then let the record forever show that Aelita beat Michael once out of the twenty other times!" Aelita cried out as Michael simply sighed.

THUMP!

"Aelita get behind me." Aelita didn't argue as she went behind Michael. Four Krabs appeared on the walkway.

"Okay... This might be tough." Michael muttered, weighing his options and trying to do something. "It's strategy time." The area around Michael once again froze. Except for this time, it was a little different. Michael simply couldn't see a way out of it.

"Right now, I can't deal with all of these Krabs. For all, I know the Scyphozoa could sneak up as I'm fighting these guys. It's too risky. Right now, we should cut our losses and try to make our way to a tower. Let's hope that XANA's aim is off today. And let's hope that Aelita's creativity is strong." The time around him unfroze and he began his strategy.

"Aelita run!" Aelita didn't argue with him as she began running in the opposite direction of the Krabs.

"Windblast!" Michael fired a fist of wind down the center and one of the Krabs was caught and knocked into the digital sea. The other three began firing at them. Michael switched from offensive to defensive with his Katana now out. He began deflecting blasts to protect them.

"Aelita! Michael! Can you hear me? Answer me will you?!" Jeremie yelled into the mic. "The others are on the way."

Michael and Aelita ran a good distance before three more Krabs showed up. Now totaling at six Krabs, the two were surrounded on both sides.

"This day just keeps getting worse and worse," Michael said as he looked around, before seeing a ledge. He picked Aelita up and held her bridal style. "Hold on!" Michael's silver aura trailed behind them as they attempted the jump. They made it over and slid across the ground.

"Aelita! Wall!" Aelita nodded immediately and used her creativity song to make a wall out of the terrain on the ledge they jumped over. A Krab attempted to jump to their side, but met the wall and fell into the digital sea. It was like a fly trying to fly into a window.

"Go! That won't hold for long!" Aelita said as they began to run again.

With Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi they were dealing with their own issues. They also ran into two Krabs, one front and one behind them. They also didn't have Michael for strategies. But, Michael knew that this could happen. So he prepared beforehand a strategy for the team to use.

 **Flashback...**

"Our own strategies?" Ulrich asked Michael on Lyoko.

"Yeah. I'm not always going to be there for you guys. And sometimes, my strategies will fail. Although they haven't yet, you guys need to have enough free will to make your own strategies on the fly. If plan A fails, then always have plan B, C, have the whole alphabet for all I care. It's just always good to have a plan. Formations are something that I want you guys to learn as well. It would be way of attacking the monsters and a little different from the plans." Michael explained to the three warriors.

"I see... What kind of strategies and formations do they have to be?" Yumi asked, wondering what to do.

"As long as it is adaptable to any situation, then it's fine. Just make sure that you discuss it beforehand and everyone knows what to do." Michael explained.

"But, I'm not good at this kind of stuff. Memorizing and all of that." Odd said, pouting.

"Come on Odd. Just try it out." Michael encouraging Odd.

"Alright, alright."

 **Flashback over...**

"Let's go with formation 4!" Ulrich said. "Odd you're up."

"Hey, I actually remembered that one!" Odd said as he dodged a Krab and made his way up the trees. Yumi did some flips and was right next to Odd's Krab. She threw her fans at the opposing Krab, and Ulrich went ahead and knocked out its legs. This caused the Krab to fall and then get destroyed by Yumi's fans. Odd was continuing to jump on the tree and dodge the lasers being shot at him. He saw that he was being shot at by the only one that was left and jumped off the tree.

"Laser Arrows!" Odd exclaimed as he fired three shot, all of which were bullseyes. The Krab was destroyed and the group came back together.

"Not bad for the first time," Ulrich said, sheathing his sword.

"Michael would probably say something about the formation, though," Yumi said, knowing how Michael was.

"Good job guys, but hurry up! Michael and Aelita have five Krabs chasing them!" Jeremie exclaimed.

"Or something about the time. Speaking of which, Jeremie could you call our taxis?"

Meanwhile, Michael and Aelita were at the edge of the sector. All five Krabs took fire at Aelita and Michael.

"Dragon Dance!" Michael exclaimed as he unsheathed his Katana and the dragon roared as Michael did a 360-degree spin to deflect all the lasers coming towards them. The lasers bounced all over the place and two ended up getting reflected back towards the Krabs that shot them, and they were both destroyed. Michael was panting hard after the move had ended. But, he noticed something strange.

"Why aren't they firing? What are they..."

"AH!" Aelita and Michael both screamed.

"Aelita! Michael!" Jeremie cried out.

As the group approached the platform where Aelita and Michael were supposed to be, Odd jumped off to see that they were nowhere to be seen.

"Wow, they're gone already? They must be really mad at us." Odd expressed. Although he wasn't serious and was instead worried about why they were suddenly gone.

"This is no time for jokes Odd! I lost both Michael and Aelita from my screens!"

"You mean-"

"No, it can't be! I doubt it!" Jeremie exclaimed as he began typing on his computer before finding that Michael and Aelita were in a fifth sector.

"Welcome to Carthage?" Jeremie read out loud.

Aelita and Michael began to stir after being dropped into the spherical dome shaped area.

"Alright... This is new..." Michael said as he began to gain his vision back after so much spinning.

The dome began to stop spinning and the XANA symbol lined up with the passage. Michael began to walk towards it on his own when he felt a hand grab his own.

"I'm not letting you go alone." Aelita gripped his hand tightly. Michael knew that Aelita wouldn't let go, even if he threatened to de-virtualize her.

"Come on Strawberry Head. Stay behind me." Michael said before he led the charge as they began their journey into sector five.

The gang tried their best to find Michael and Aelita, they were met with some company from XANA.

"Okay Odd, your turn," Ulrich said as he got onto his Overbike.

"Hmm... Let's go with formation 2!" Odd cried out before he let out a battle cry on his Overboard.

"Really? Gosh Odd, Michael wasn't kidding. You really aren't the greatest tactician." Yumi said as she got onto her Overwing and began the formation.

The Hornets that XANA had sent after them tried to attack all at once but were meet with separate attacks from all the group. Whether it was Yumi destroying three with one fan, Ulrich using his speed for range, or Odd just being Odd, the group did their best to hold off the monsters.

Jeremie wasn't having the best of luck trying to find the password. He kept typing but it was no use. He just couldn't seem to get it correct.

Sector five was an interesting place for Aelita and Michael. They walked to a doorway that seemed locked until it busted open.

THUMP!

"Behind you!" Michael cried out as he destroyed the Creeper with a stab to the head. Aelita however, got spooked and began running into the dome. "Aelita! Dang, it! She freaked out!" Michael yelled to himself as he began running after her.

The rest of the group on Lyoko did all they could. But, things weren't looking good. Their vehicles were destroyed, and they were completely surrounded.

"Okay... Anybody got any good ideas?" Yumi said preparing for doom.

"Well, I have one. It's a plan that Michael taught me." Ulrich said to the group.

"And that is?" Odd questioned as he readied his arrows.

"Plan F." Ulrich simply said.

"What's plan F, Ulrich?" Yumi and Odd asked.

"We are so F-"

"I did it! I got the password!" Jeremie cried out. And the white ball or transporter took them to sector five.

Michael was panicking now. He saw that in the middle of the dome area, 8 of those creatures were standing there ready to fire. And to top it off, XANA had the good old Scyphozoa beginning to steal Aelita's memory. Anytime Michael would begin a move, though, he got shot at by three Creepers. He was completely stuck! Either he risked his life to save Aelita's or just let Aelita's memory get stolen! Even if he did cut XANA, the creepers would still shoot him!

"Welp. It looks like I can finally use Plan F. We are so F- Whoa!" Michael and Aelita got re-materialized in that one moment. In the scanners, both were thoroughly exhausted. _'Thank goodness for timers!'_ Michael said before he passed out.

 **A few hours later...**

Michael was resting on Jeremie's bed as the group began to talk about sector five. They discussed the memory stealer, the Creepers, and the exploration of the new found sector. His head stirred when he came to.

"What's going on?" Michael asked in a groggy voice.

"Oh, sleeping beauty is finally awake!" Everyone laughed except for Aelita and Michael.

"What happened?" Michael asked as he continued to grip his head.

"Well, that's what I was going to ask you. You were in sector five, when all of a sudden, you and Aelita were re-materialized. How did you manage that?" Jeremie remembering it all clearly. He saw that one moment, Aelita's memory was being taken, and in the next, they were back on Earth. The gang quickly got out under Jeremie's instructions.

"Oh. That timer? Yeah, I decided to try it out. Turns out it works like a charm. If you delay the virtualization program with time, you can materialize yourself onto Lyoko on your own. However, the reverse is possible as well if you set a timer again for it. Therefore, you set up a timed materialization." Michael explaining.

"I see. In theory, you can force the scanner to bring someone back. Obviously with re-materialization, but to think that you can perfectly time it." Jeremie now thinking about all the possibilities.

"We were lucky this time around. What bothers me is a number of monsters around in the sector. I have never seen so many creatures in Lyoko before." Michael worrying said. "He might still be evolving."

"Um..." Aelita said getting the attention of the group. "You aren't mad at me for going to Lyoko on my own are you?" Everyone else in the room all stared at Jeremie. They all knew that he was partly to blame for the incident, but Michael especially knew. He even gave Jeremie the hint that he messed up big time. Jeremie still seemed to not get the message but did apologize somewhat.

"You don't have to explain Aelita. We understand what happened. And we aren't angry at all." Jeremie said. "I promise to spend more time with you." Michael huffed at that part silently.

"Yeah! And if you want, I can teach you plenty of ways to get Sissi to go to-" Odd didn't finish his statement.

"Odd! Do you know what your filthy mutt did in the shower? Oh?" Sissi was at the front of the door staring in. "Well look at that, you find Mr. and Miss. Einstein!" Kiwi began to growl. Clearly not impressed.

"Yeah, while you were taking your third shower of the day!" Ulrich cried out.

"Oh well, Ulrich dear You know a pretty flower like me, needs to be watered often!" Sissi proclaimed.

"Yes, you never know, you might just sprout a brain!" Aelita said. That got everyone laughing while Sissi simply left the room. The gang eventually all split up and went to their respective rooms.

Michael stared at his computer screen before heading off to bed. He stared at the poster in his room and the boxing gloves on his chair.

 **Featherweight Tournament!  
**

 _'Not yet... Once the program is finished, it will be the time.'_

* * *

Author's Note: Hope you guys enjoyed! Please leave a review and any suggestions are always welcome!


	9. Chapter 8: Tensions, simulations,Sector5

Author's Note: Happy New Year Everyone! Hope you guys are enjoying the break. I will be attempting to update both this and tongue of emotion ASAP! Look forward to it!

* * *

Chapter 8: Tensions, simulations, sector five oh my!

After the gang de-activated another tower they were in the factory discussing the new sector they discovered. Aelita brought the idea of going there to discover an anti-virus for Michael and her. While Jeremie was against the idea, Odd brought up though that they knew everything about the sector.

"We might be able to find some more information on XANA." Aelita now trying to convince Jeremie.

"While I am all for this, we are all forgetting something. We are going to this mission blind. That means that we have to be prepared for anything and everything. So as long as we are all up for it, then we shouldn't go." Michael voicing his opinion. "Jeremie, I do think that this could help the anti-virus. What do you say?"

Seeing the entire group not seeming to budge, Jeremie gave in. "Okay. Tomorrow, we hit sector five." Jeremie agreed.

Outside the factory, the gang looked to see how late it was and Yumi couldn't believe it. Odd was complaining about missing dinner, Jeremie said a smart remark and Michael stayed passive.

"Crap, my parents are going to kill me! See you guys later!" Yumi now trying to run back as fast as she could. She didn't notice however that a silver figure was behind her.

As Yumi approached the front gate, she tried her best to sneak in. When she got through the front door, her parents were waiting for her.

"Yumi, we need to talk." Mr. Ishiyama said with his demanding voice.

In the kitchen, Yumi was eating some leftover noodles and trying to avoid her parent's eyes. She was explaining to them a lie, but she got caught for it.

"Yumi... Please tell us what's going on. We are concerned. We are-"

CREEK! SLAM! The front door was opened and shut. Yumi's parents were on high alert as they thought it was an intruder in their house. The thought though was perished, when they heard the voice of their "Intruder."

"Excuse me? I think I left my coat here earlier." Michael now coming into the kitchen.

"Oh hey, Yumi. Sorry for holding you at school. I really did appreciate you helping me with my project."

"Project? What is he talking about Yumi?" Mr. Ishiyama asked his daughter.

Yumi's eyes were the size of dinner plates. Michael gave her a wink and proceeded to Yumi's parents.

"I am sorry, Mr. Ishiyama and Mrs. Ishiyama. I wasn't able to tell you last time that Yumi had been staying with me this late." Michael had been referring to the time that he came over and decided to make dinner for the family. While the two protested, Michael insisted that he make something, it turned out to be fantastic, and they always secretly hoped that he would do it again.

"Did I come at a bad time?" Michael trying his best to look innocent.

"Well, Michael..." Mrs. Ishiyama now looking at him. "Why haven't you told us about it?"

"I didn't think that it would take this long! The few times that Yumi was late, she thought that you guys wouldn't be too angry. And here I thought that I was being okay with my desires!" Michael whispered into Mrs. Ishiyama's ear. "I am trying to keep it a secret so that way Yumi and I can surprise them big time!"

Mrs. Ishiyama seemed to understand and signal to her husband that they had really nothing to worry about. Mr. Ishiyama, on the other hand, wasn't buying it.

"I am still not okay with this." Mr. Ishiyama having his arms crossed. "Yumi is staying out way too late. Even if it is for her friends."

"How about this Mr. Ishiyama?" Michael now playing his trump card. "Best of three in Shogi. If I win, then you will let Yumi off the hook. But, if you win, then I will make you that Stir Fry I made for one week."

Mr. Ishiyama had been taken back by the offer. He didn't know that the young man could play Shogi. But, to make meals for a full week would be incredible!

"Very well! The match is tomorrow. Just to let you know, I used to be a Shogi Champion!" It was, in fact, true. In the living room, his two-time world champion trophies sat among other things. Like Yumi's first drawing or Hiroki's first test.

The following day Yumi's parents walked Yumi all the way to school. Just because they agreed to Michael's offer, doesn't mean that they still didn't punish her for staying out so late. But, Yumi was thankful in a way. If Michael didn't do anything, it would have been much worse.

"I am expecting you at Five O'Clock sharp." Mr. Ishiyama said putting a hand on Yumi's shoulder. "Michael must be a pretty good Shogi player. He must be better than you if he thinks he has got a shot at me."

In truth, Mr. Ishiyama was a two-time champion, but Yumi wasn't too bad herself. A few moves here and there really threw the champion off. She would beat him a few times, and she was no ordinary player.

The next day came and Sissi made some off-hand remark about Yumi getting walked to school, but Yumi had other things on her mind. She saw the gang at the vending machines, but Michael and Aelita were nowhere to be seen.

"Hey guys, have you seen Michael?" Yumi now coming up to them.

"No, we haven't. We heard about the incident, though. Sounds like Michael must be pretty confident." Jeremie remembering when Yumi told them about her father.

"I think Michael was saying something about working on something in his room. I think Aelita dropped by as well." Ulrich remembering the bags around Michael's eyes in the showers this morning.

"What a mess. I hate lying to my parents. And to think that Michael had to cover for me." Yumi disappointed in herself. "I need to go thank him. See you guys later!" The group waved as Yumi headed for the dorms.

Michael was struggling. He finally managed to finish his program with the help of Aelita. But, the space he made could only support three people. He needed to expand the area, but the coding would only allow a certain distance. So, Michael had tried to work around that distance. Aelita was looking over his shoulder to spot anything out.

"Dang it! Still, doesn't work." Michael now wanting to throw his keyboard.

"Maybe, Lyoko is just restricting you somehow?" Aelita said.

"I am honestly not too sure. Granted this will work for now, though. I am close to making it bigger." Michael typing away.

"What is this even for? You never told me about it." Aelita asked.

"Oh, it's for-"

KNOCK KNOCK!

"For the last time Jim!" Michael getting out of his chair. "I told you that running is the best way to-" Michael opened the door to see Jim not standing there.

"Hello, Yumi. Please come in." Michael completely flustered going back to his computer.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you maggot!" Yumi and Aelita doing an impression of Jim.

"ACHOO!" Jim sneezed while bench pressing. "I think someone is talking about me."

BANG! And with that Jim dropped the bar on his chest.

"I would rather not talk about it." Michael sighed as he got back to his computer.

CLANK! After Jim got the bar off his chest he hit the bar.

"What are you doing here? If you don't hurry, then you are going to miss your test today." Yumi noticing that the bell was going to ring soon.

"Don't worry, Aelita and I already took it." Michael groaned.

"Huh? How did you manage that?" Yumi now wondering how on earth they managed to do that.

"Michael is struggling right now. He is like a Jeremie who doesn't need sleep. So the nurse told him to rest for today. She asked me to watch him make sure he got to sleep. So, she told us to take our exams early today." Aelita explained. Yumi now noticing why Michael had dark circles around his eyes.

"I am telling you I am fine. I just want to finish this, go to the factory, and win Yumi's freedom." Michael said in a deadpan voice. "After that, then I could get sleep."

"You do remember that my dad is a master rank Go player right? Even though I beat him sometimes, he will not fall for any tricks. Especially for your Stir Fry."

"Stir Fry?" Aelita wondered. She felt her head spin a little.

"Thank you for yesterday! You better make that Stir Fry again for my birthday!" -Aelita

"Aelita? Aelita?" Michael waving his hand in front of her. Normally, he would have picked up on Aelita's facial expression, but with no sleep, he struggled to do so.

"Oh sorry, what were you saying?" Aelita now back in the conversation.

"I was saying that I think I will try one more time. You can go to class. I know that the nurse told you to stay, but you love learning. Go on, don't keep me from taking that away." Michael explained with a thumbs up. Aelita smiled and gave him a brief hug before making her way to science.

"That was sweet of you." Yumi having more respect for Michael than before.

"She is so innocent. I want to keep her that way. Her smile just takes all of the anger out of you. If only Jeremie would pick up on it." Michael gripped his hands a little. "If only If only... So what can I do for you Yumi?" Michael now trying a test trail again for the program.

"Um..." Yumi wasn't really sure how to word her response. "Thank you." She whispered.

"Huh? Can't hear you speak up." Michael hit the enter key and the test began to run.

"I said thank you okay?!" Yumi yelled. She noticed her tone and how loud she was.

"Whoa!" Michael now paying attention and falling out of his chair. Doors began to open and some wondered what happened. Yumi was so embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it. After all, friends do that for each other don't they?" Michael simply being blunt.

"I guess so. Hey, wait a minute, how did you know that I was going to get in trouble? That lie seemed too well prepared. And how did you get in?" Yumi now wondering.

"Well, based on your reaction and the fact that I knew I left something at your parent's house, I simply came to check. When I got there I used the spare key that you guys told me about." Michael explained.

"I see. Well, I got to go fail an Italian test. Wish me luck!"

"Buona Fortuna! (Good luck!)" Michael yelled out. He looked at his screen to see that he had a big green check mark.

"YES!" Michael fist pumped in the air. He pulled out his phone and texted two people.

Odd and Ulrich were actually in a good mood for once after a test. Although a few questions messed them up, for the most part, they know they got at least a B in Ulrich's case and C in Odd's case. So when they got a text from Michael, they couldn't be happier.

"Meet me in the factory in 20 minutes. It's ready to be tested ." Michael's text said. After class ended, Odd and Ulrich told Jeremie that they needed to go to Michael's room to check something out. Jeremie let them because he assumed it was some sports thing. Boy, would he be surprised later.

Yumi didn't do great on her Italian test. Although Good Luck was a vocab word so she got that one right for sure. She was heading out of class when she saw Odd and Ulrich nod to each other. They began to run towards the forest.

'That's weird.' Yumi checked her phone and there was no message. 'Is XANA attacking?' Yumi decided to check it out for herself, but she saw Aelita and Jeremie talking over near the vending machines. 'It's not XANA. Because Jeremie would be heading there now. Why would they need to head to the factory?' Yumi decided to follow them.

After following behind them, Yumi saw them take the usual swing down the rope. Yumi followed and got into the elevator as it was shutting.

"Yumi!?" Ulrich shocked that Yumi followed them. "What are you doing here?"

"I could be asking you both the same thing. There is no XANA attack, so why are you going here huh?" Yumi now basically demanding answers.

"What should we do?" Odd whispered in Ulrich's ear.

"Well, she is here now. Might as well let her in." Ulrich whispered back.

"Do you think Michael will be happy or angry?" Odd asked.

The door to the elevator opened up into the computer room. Michael was on the main computer typing away.

"Michael, we brought a guest," Ulrich said frustrated. Odd and Yumi wondered why Ulrich sounded so mad.

"Ah! Yumi! What a surprise!" Michael said with delight. It took Odd and Yumi back, though. Michael sounded way too happy. The answer was found when Ulrich handed Michael 10 dollars. "Man! And you thought that Jeremie would be the one to discover it! HA! In your face Ulrich!"

"Ah! Happy! That's why!" Odd now understanding the gag.

"Wait, what happened?" Yumi processing just happened. "Wait a minute... Are you guys betting on us?"

"Well, just you, Jeremie, and Aelita. Don't take it too personally. Although, Odd found out second, so you have to live with that for the rest of your life." Michael said. Ulrich was on the floor crying laughing.

"HA-ha! Very funny! At least I know that Aelita will be last!" Odd said. Michael on the other hand disagreed.

"Are you kidding me!? Aelita helped me make this program! You must be joking! Aelita already knows what this program is. Maybe not the purpose, but she still helped." Michael arguing for Aelita.

"Yeah, but Einstein is a genius! He is the one who started the whole thing!" Odd shouted back.

"Oh? Is that a challenge I hear? Tell you what, if I am right then you can't ask any girls out for one whole month." Michael laughing and Ulrich and Yumi barely containing their grins. "But if I lose, then I will try and program you something cool on Lyoko. Think of it as an upgrade."

'Hook, line and Sinker. Odd is screwed.' Yumi and Ulrich both thought.

"DEAL!" Michael and Odd shook hands.

"Okay! Now, what are you guys even doing here? What's this program that you are talking about?" Yumi still not quite sure what was happening.

"Oh right! Odd, Ulrich, get to the scanners. We don't have a lot of time, but we will make the most out of it." Michael explained. Ulrich and Odd nodded as they went to the scanner rooms. "Come here Yumi, you will want to watch for now." Yumi still not sure what was happening, came over to Michael's screen.

"Virtualization!"

Odd and Ulrich landed in the Ice sector. They had high hopes for what was going on.

"Alright. Looking good so far. Is XANA active?" Michael asked.

"Nope. We are fine for now Michael." Ulrich replied.

"Okay. For now, I want to test it first. This is the test for Training Area 1. Which one of you feels brave enough?" Michael on the inside was really nervous. He wanted this to work so bad, but he knew that anything could happen on Lyoko. Yumi heard the words training area and she wondered what was going to happen.

"I will go," Odd said.

"Alright then... Let's do it." Michael finished typing his program. "Simulation Bubble! Start!" Michael hit the enter key. A bright white light engulfed Odd and Ulrich was a good distance away to watch.

"Connection!" Michael began typing away and loading screens were all popping up on his screens. "Simulation loading. Training Area 1. Allowing passage for Lyoko warrior Odd." Michael waited for Odd's voice. It started to worry Michael as he got no response.

"Odd! Can you hear me! Odd!" Michael began yelling into the mic. Yumi and Ulrich were worried.

"Relax! I am here!" Michael sighed in relief. "I am at some door thing!" For Odd, the space around him was all white. A simple door with a keyhole and a panel.

"That's good Odd!" Michael began calming down. "Fire a laser arrow into the door. After that, it should open!" Odd fired one arrow into the door and a panel lite up green.

"Acess Granted. Confirming with the main computer." Michael said. He hit enter and Odd went through the door.

Odd appeared on Michael's screen confirming that he was indeed in Training Area 1. With training area 1, it was quite peaceful. The surrounding area was the forest sector. But all around it had different targets, lakes, and a tower in the center of all of it. The digital void wasn't there anymore instead replaced with another level below.

"Wow." Was all Odd could really say. He thought at first it was just the forest sector but clearly, some remodeling had been done.

"Alright Odd. I am going to send you some dummies. They will fire at you, but they can't devirtualize you. Try and take them out." Michael hit his mini program and two blocks appeared in front of Odd. "These are every bit like XANA's creatures. The only difference is I got control of them. Try fighting them. See if you notice anything about them."

Odd wasn't really sure what he was supposed to notice, but they began firing at him. He began running around and using the trees to his advantage. But, then something strange happened. Odd could have sworn that he saw a hint of silver around the creatures. He opened fire at the blocks and they dodged his shots.

With the visual that he provided Ulrich and Yumi, they both noticed something strange.

'These blocks are moving better!' All three realized. The blocks seemed to be guiding Odd somewhere. Odd saw that several fire rings began heading towards him. He saw a chance and began to dive into them.

"Sorry Odd! Checkmate!" Michael grinned. The other block jumped on top of the other and fired an ice beam through the gap that Odd was diving through. He saw that he was trapped and got frozen in mid-air. He hit the ground hard shattering the ice around him.

While the other three couldn't believe that Odd just lost to simple blocks, Michael knew the results. "Alright, that's enough for today. Simulation shut down." Michael began typing away and sure enough, the simulation bubble faded and Michael rematerialized Odd and Ulrich.

"So you want to explain to me what just happened?" Yumi asked. Michael simply kept his smile on as he yawned and stretched his back.

"That is what I call a successful test," Michael said. Odd and Ulrich came up on the elevator.

"Okay Michael, what just happened?" Ulrich now asking.

"Yeah, those movements were completely different from the blocks we usually face." Odd now complaining. And here he thought that he had those blocks on the rope.

"Easy Odd. Those blocks I programmed so that way I can control them. In a simulation bubble, the main user has access to everything in its space. Therefore, by rewriting some of XANA's basic DNA code for the monsters he uses I am able to isolate-"

"In English please?" Odd pleaded.

"Basically, I can recreate any of the monsters and control them. Or just set them to autopilot. This way you can prepare for the fight against XANA." Michael chuckled.

...

...

"Guys? What's wrong?"

"YOU ARE A MANIAC! WHAT- NO HOW MUCH TIME DID IT TAKE YOU TO WORK ON THIS?" All three asked.

"Um... I would rather not talk about it." Michael began to run away from everyone as they continued to chase him around the factory.

Code lyoko…

Back at the school, Jeremie and Aelita were doing homework in the library. Alone for once. And while Jeremie loved hanging out with his pink crush, he noticed something odd and decided to get an opinion on something.

"Have you been noticing the mood shift recently?"

"Not particularly. If there has been one, I like it. Odd and Ulrich are finally getting good grades and not looking so stressed. I only wish the same could be said for Yumi. But, she has been getting along better with her parents and hopefully will improve soon," Aelita said as she closed another textbook.

"Don't you find it weird that ever since Michael has gotten here, the group has changed? It feels like everyone is being affected by him in some way." Aelita didn't like where this conversation was heading. But she decided to bite.

"How is that a bad thing? He has been very helpful to the group and even helped with the vehicles that we worked on. It would have taken much longer without him. Not to mention the number of all-nighters he takes. I am worried about his health."

"That's another thing that bothers me. Whenever I ask him what he is doing, he just brushes it off and ignores me. I am really getting sick of him." Jeremie slammed his textbook with vigor.

"Jeremie, I think that you are overreacting a little. Don't you think? Michael told me that he simply wants to be sure of something before he presents it to the group," While Aelita hoped the comment would slow Jeremie down, it got him more infuriated.

"Wait, he has been consulting you and not me?! Who does he think he is? I am the one who found Lyoko! I got the virtualization program started! Without me, he wouldn't even exist!"

*SLAM*

"Quiet in the library, Jeremie! And no slamming on the desk Stones!" Jim shouted across the room.

"You can be mad at what Michael does. But don't you ever say his existence wouldn't be a reality without you! What does make me? I am just someone that owes everything to you now? Should I be begging for things from you since you allowed me to live?" Aelita grew tears in her eyes and ran off before Jeremie could respond.

Code Lyoko...

Eventually, the group at the factory stopped messing around and began preparing for the night. While Yumi ran home for the night to be on time for curfew, the three boys were hanging out in Michael's room. Ulrich and Odd introduced Michael to a game called space invaders.

"This is impossible! I can't shoot all these guys at once when they keep firing back at me! Not to mention my barriers keep breaking down!" Michael cried as he got another game over screen.

"Well looks like we found Michael's kryptonite," Ulrich noted as he didn't expect Michael to be so bad with games.

"Krypto-what?"

"Oh, we are so showing you, Superman, when we get back from this mission." Odd sighed as yet again he was reminded that Michael was not around when a piece of cinematic history was around.

The boys continued talking about pop culture until the two left to get ready for the evening. Michael continued to look at the practice board that the gang had given him and he had a solid strategy in place. For better or for worse, he was going to have fun.

*Knock Knock*

"Door is open!" He continued to stare at the board and was trying to formulate a strategy seeing if he needed to do any last minute adjustments. When he heard no noise he wondered how long he was in that daze because he thought someone should have answered. He looked up to see Aelita crying.

"Aelita! What's wrong?!" His voice seemed to shock Aelita out of her state as she went falling towards the floor on her hands and knees. Michael quickly caught her before she completely hit the ground. He embraced her as she sobbed into his shirt. "Aelita talk to me. I am right here." He asked in a much softer voice.

"It's Jeremie! He is being an impossible jerk again!" Aelita let out a pained screech. "He is saying that you are causing the group to change! And is saying that he is sick of you hiding things from him! Not to mention that he feels like you owe him something! For him to say that, doesn't he think the same about me then?!"

Michael closed the door behind Aelita and the two sat in the bed with Aelita calming down a little. He began to think about what Jeremie was saying and thought process.

"I know Jeremie didn't mean all of that. Maybe he is just scared of losing all of his friends. And maybe he is right in a way of me hiding things from him."

"What do you mean?" Aelita asked.

"Well, maybe I have been changing what he used to know. And change takes time to adjust to. Look, I will talk with him about it some other time. But please, don't get mad for my sake okay? It's pretty uncool for a guy to get defended by a girl." Michael laughed at the sentiment.

"And who told you that?" Aelita now putting a smile on her face.

"Why Odd did of course!" The two laughed and Michael looked at the clock realizing it was time for him to head to Yumi's place.

"Welp I got a Shogi match to win. Good luck with sector five. And please try and forgive Jeremie." Michael picked up his bags and locked the door.

"How is it possible that you are more forgiving than me?" Aelita wondered as the two walked down the hall.

"Call it a good hunch. Later!" The two high fived and before she knew it he was gone.

Code Lyoko…

It was later at night when the four warriors gathered at the factory. While Ulrich and Odd didn't seem to have the sixth sense that Michael had, it didn't take a genius to figure out something happened between the two Einsteins. Regardless they were scanned into the forest sector and soon took off to the edge of the sector.

"Alright, I am typing in the code. SCIPIO." The white XANA transporter appeared and engulfed the three warriors transporting them to the center of sector five. As the dome span around, the three were dropped off. "Happy Campers?"

"Yeah, I think I am finally starting to get used to these trips," Ulrich stated feeling much better than last time.

"Ugh, not me. I shouldn't have had that fifth dessert at lunch," Odd sighed at his stomach.

"Jeremie, the walls about to open," Aelita stated.

"Right that means the countdown is to start. That must be how we explore further." Jeremie concurred.

The three began exploring sector five, while Michael and Mr. Ishiyama's battle was coming to a close. With the series tied at 1-1, the tiebreaker had been stressful. Michael's board was actually losing badly against Mr. Ishiyama's board and with around 124 moves in, it seemed like there was no chance for him to win. At least that's what Mr. Ishiyama seemed to think.

"Sorry, Mr. Ishiyama. Gold General 1-2-1. With that, I would say the situation has been reserved." Michael smiled as his opponent declared his defeat seeing no way out.

"You used the climbing silver? Never thought of you as a risk taker." Mr. Ishiyama said as he took his pieces back placing them in the container.

"There is a first time for everything. It's important to know when you need to sacrifice some pieces to get the advantage. It just happened to be the perfect aggressive strategy I was looking for." Michael laughed as his opponent was still trying to figure out how he lost to someone much younger than him. But, that's the way of Shogi.

As things winded down, Michael and Yumi both saw their phones lit up. The two looked at each other and knew that something was up.

"Well, I think I am going to call it a night," Yumi said yawning as she exited the living room.

"I think I am going to be heading back to the dorm. I need to still finish a report on the great war." Michael also stated.

The door shut behind them as Yumi answered the phone putting it on speakerphone.

"Jeremie, how is it going?"

"Badly, head straight for the factory!"

Seeing no time to lose, the two left in a hurry. What they forgot to do though was make up a dummy for Yumi.

Code Lyoko…

"Jeremie, I think I hear something…" Aelita stated being in a small room alone.

"Oh no! It's the Scyphozoa!" Jeremie panicked as the two warriors went straight to the scanner room.

Being virtualized quickly, both Yumi and Michael made it quickly to the edge of the sector. As they approached the edge, two crabs were waiting right near the edge.

"We don't have time for you! Take this!"

"YAHH!"

Both fan and sword hit their marks as Jeremie typed the code SCIPIO. The transporter appeared and soon the two went to sector five.

Michael sprinted off first before encountering a bunch of lasers in his path. Yumi quickly caught up and saw the problem.

"Yumi, you are going to have to do this one. My avatar isn't made for this."

"No pressure huh? Just like gym class." Yumi responded nervously.

Yumi began maneuvering her way through the lasers as creepers appeared along the left and right sides and behind Michael. While firing some wind blasts taking creepers out along the walls, Michael knew they were getting overrun fast.

"Yumi! Today please!"

Not having many life points left, Yumi made it through the last hurdle and hit the mechanism changing the whole core zone and saving Aelita from the Scyphozoa. Making their way further down they saw an elevator and quickly jumped on. Soon they saw Aelita and she jumped on grabbing both Yumi and Michael's hand.

"Where are we going?" Aelita asked relieved to see her friends.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Michael said thankful to see that Aelita was alright.

When the elevator stopped, the group entered a giant arena data flowing all over. With a single interface sitting at the heart, Aelita wasted no time trying to find the program for Ulrich and Odd.

"Wait this data is… The heart of XANA! Sector five is where XANA lives!" Aelita exclaimed.

"While that is indeed crazy, something off is happening in the sky." Michael gathered energy to his fists just in case.

"We are going to need our vehicles," Yumi asked while Jeremie politely told them he couldn't do much while Aelita was searching for the program.

"Found it! You can take over Jeremie." Aelita sighed as she knew her friend's codes were found.

"Jeremie! We need vehicles now!" Michael exclaimed blasting one of the Mantas.

The three quickly jumped onto vehicles as Jeremie found a way to open up one of the data holes to a different sector. Not before Yumi got di-virtualized leaving only Michael and Aelita.

"Code: Earth!" The scanners popped open and were sealed again for their friends.

All three warriors were waiting for the program to work and before they knew it Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich were back. While groggy, nobody seemed injured and that's what mattered most. Everyone was tired and exhausted when Kiwi came sneaking through the factory entrance. Surrounded by adult's Michael did the only thing that made sense.

"LEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY JENKINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

"Did he just run away?" Ulrich asked.

"Jeremie stick to the plan!" Odd yelled as Jeremie hit the button for the elevator. Before everyone knew it a white light engulfed everyone around them.

Code Lyoko…

"So you still refuse us to give us an explanation?" Mr. Ishiyama said with a typical parent look of disgust.

"Alright, I will tell you. I am in love." Yumi sighed looking at her parents and giving a certain boy a quick glance.

"Ah, that's it. I knew there had to be a reason." The man nodded his head with glee and proudness.

"And would you tell us your boyfriend's name?" Mrs. Ishiyama asked.

"No sorry mom. See you tonight." Yumi waved her parents off and gave a little tease face at Sissi.

"Well, that seemed to go better than expected. What did you tell them?" Ulrich asked.

"The truth," Yumi said blushing a little.

In this time period, Yumi asked Michael not to follow her home and covering for her. Instead, she figured she would confront her parents herself.

While the three friends began walking to their classes, Michael was at the factory experimenting with his simulation once more. He hoped that he would begin creating other sectors. That way the group could get more experience. Engrossed in his work, Michael didn't even see it coming.

*WHACK*

Outcold, Michael's body was dragged to the scanner. And before he even realized it, transferred to Lyoko.

* * *

Author's Note: Well that's quite unforunate. That is going to leave quite the scar. TILL NEXT TIME!


End file.
